New and improved Joiners Square roundabout to fully open to traffic this week

The new Joiners Square roundabout will be opened for morning rush hour traffic this Friday (25 June) with increased capacity to cut tailbacks and improve air quality.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has confirmed that the temporary, four-way traffic lights will be removed following four nights of overnight closures to resurface the road. The roundabout has been remodelled and increased in size to improve its layout and increase its capacity. It is part of £8.7m of improvements to two significant gateways into the city, with work continuing to progress on the other major project at the junction of Bucknall New Road and Potteries Way.

There will some remaining works in the area on Friday to install new boundary fencing for properties near to Austin Street. In order to allow teams to carry out these works safely, the left-hand lane will be closed off using cones for a distance of approximately 30 metres up to the roundabout.

Following the completion of the roundabout infrastructure, landscaping works will take place on the roundabout island itself in around four weeks’ time. This will involve temporary, localised traffic management. There will be trees and shrubs planted on the roundabout and a series of corten steel ‘seger cones’ installed. Seger cones were small ceramic cones used to gauge the temperature of kilns and were manufactured by Harrison and Sons at a site located next to the roundabout.

Councillor Daniel Jellyman, cabinet member for regeneration, infrastructure and heritage and deputy leader of the council, said: “We are incredibly pleased that the new and improved Joiners Square roundabout will be opened for morning rush hour traffic this Friday (25 June). We want to thank everyone for their patience while the works were being carried out. We are investing a significant amount of money into the city’s highways. This scheme is part of a wider transport masterplan for this area and when it's all completed there will be real benefits for motorists, businesses and residents from reducing congestion, improving journey times and improving air quality in the local area.”