Flooded underpass forces locals to detour

The flooding of an underpass has left locals without a safe pedestrian route into Wednesbury town centre for months.

The underpass near the busy A41 Black Country New Road flooded when a water main burst in October.

The underpass has remained submerged in up to three feet (1m) of water ever since, forcing people to cross the busy dual carriageway.

Sandwell Council said that temporary traffic lights and a reduced speed limit of 30mph would be introduced on the road by 20 January to address safety concerns.

Vince Connor is partially sighted and explained that what used to be a 10 minute journey one-way now takes him 50 minutes.

"Sometimes I go out and don't know if I'm going to get back home," he said.

Another resident, Claire, said: "I nearly got hit last week and it's scary. And it's not fair. The council should do something about it. It's not fair on me or anyone else."

Resident Steve Sheldon said he had contacted the council multiple times since mid-October to get the problem fixed but was "frustrated" by the lack of progress.

"It doesn't matter how many case numbers you have, it's never enough and no-one seems to want to do anything about it," he said.

Sandwell Council said repairing the underpass would require "significant investment and time".

Since the BBC started investigating, it has announced a pedestrian crossing would be installed in the coming days to help keep pedestrians safe.

Sandwell councillor Keith Allcock said: "We know that the flooding of the underpass has been a real inconvenience to many residents since the major water main burst."

He said that the authority had tried to pump the water off by using a tanker, but it had not been effective due to the amount of wet weather and freezing temperatures.

The pump is expected to be replaced by early February.

Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.