West Midlands Mayor Andy Street has admitted he has "had it out" with the Midland Metro Alliance about an "unacceptable" unfinished section of pavement next to rebuilt tram lines in Birmingham city centre.
The Corporation Street track had only been in service for five years and two months when it was first dug up and then replaced from July 25 to the end of October, 2021. Today, 15 months later, the pavement corner with Bull Street remains partly cordoned off - at the same time that Lower Bull Street is still a mass of Eastside extension tram works as can be seen in our video above.
Trams began running to the new Edgbaston Village terminus on Hagley Road on July 17, 2022 - by which time they were seven months late. Today, there are plastic barriers along a new dividing metal rail on a Corporation Street pavement - a feature that was not there before the track was dug up. Temporary fencing around the corner on the Bull Street pavement highlights where more work still needs to be done.
Read more: Eastside Metro trams won't serve Digbeth via HS2 'until 2027'
Most of the shop units down the nearby North Western Arcade and along Corporation Street towards Bull Street corner are empty. There is another vacant unit on the corner of Temple Row and Bull Street as well as several units in The Minories arcade closer to the Metro's Bull Street stop.
In addition, extensive work to put Eastside extension tracks down Lower Bull Street will have seen the road closed for two years by the time safety fences are removed this summer from in between The Square shopping centre and Martineau Place, another site with long-term empty units.
Given his belief that "part of any success of a city centre is the ease of access to it," West Midlands Mayor Andy Street is as strident as I've ever seen him when I ask why the Corporation Street corner is still unfinished next to so many local business units that are closed.
One surviving independent trader who asked not to be named, had told me five months ago that 'A brickie friend could have put that pavement down by himself quicker than the MMA'. Mr Street dismissed that layman's view, but agreed the work should have been done by now.
"Let's be clear about this," said Mr Street. "It is unacceptable. I’ve had this out with the MMA. They are waiting for the piece that has been specified and they’ve put up a temporary barrier.
"You are right. It is not good enough that it has taken us that long and I have personally stood here with the contactor and asked them that question.
"It doesn’t reflect the ailment of the North Western Arcade where it’s not right for me to comment on individual businesses. (These barriers) are not stopping any access to the North Western Arcade in any way and you can also see that it is safe.
"I accept your point that it should not be like that and it is a combination of late specification of the exact finish that is required. Once you specify a piece, how long is it going to take to get it here from wherever in the world it has got to come from?
"It's down to poor project management. I accept that."
A Midland Metro Alliance spokesperson told BirminghamLive: "The works currently underway in this section are for the Birmingham Eastside Metro extension and are unrelated to the Corporation Street track replacement work completed in 2021. The activity involves essential upgrades of the utilities in the area to allow the new Metro line to run down Lower Bull Street.
"Supply chain constraints experienced around the globe have meant that we have been unable to complete this section as swiftly as we would have liked. The material needed to complete the paving is expected to arrive in the coming weeks, after which we will complete the paving works in this area."
Local work
The area between Lower Bull Street and the unfinished corner of Corporation Street is now home to a complex new 'delta junction' that will switch the direction of trams from Wolverhampton to Digbeth or Edgbaston and back again as well as linking Digbeth with Edgbaston.
Lower Bull Street was closed at the end of July, 2021 to be used as a temporary dumping ground for the excavated Corporation Street material. Work then began to prepare underground utilities for the arrival of Eastside tracks which are now being installed.
Mr Street said turning The Square and neighbouring areas into "Martineau Galleries" was the "most exciting" part of the city centre's future regenaration that would created a whole new access route towards HS2 once Kings Parade was demolished.
But, as BirminghamLive revealed this week, the dependence on HS2 progress halfway along the Eastside extension means trams are now not set to reach Digbeth on the new route until 2027 - Mr Street had been hoping for 2025 when he first announced work on the £227 million, mile long Eastside extension in December, 2020.
When planning permission was granted for Martineau Galleries in January 2020 (before coronavirus>Covid), councillors heard it would take until the late 2030s to complete.
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