Friargate development

... with a set of traffic lights at every junction? That should keep the traffic flowing.

Traffic doesn't flow very well without traffic lights at the junctions because a stream of traffic just blocks everyone else. So they put traffic lights in anyway but they don't really work well because the sliproads just get jammed up. Traffic doesn't flow at the A45 junction at all because it's jammed up every night as it can't handle the traffic. And then you just get stuck in traffic in the suburbs anyway. So it hardly matters. The only people who seem to benefit are those using it as a bypass. If you're going to put traffic lights at all those junctions, you might as well just remove the flyovers (There's not much traffic on them) free up all that land and make the city centre much more hospitable for people and have proper streets instead of flyovers and 'backages'. Odd that no other city built a fully grade separated ring road, the closest being Birmingham, who planned to remove it after 16 years and it's now widely regarded as being one of the biggest mistakes ever (Not to mention destructive.) Go and stand in Lady Herbert's garden and look at the view: eight lanes of road and a huge and over engineered road junction taking up about four city blocks. No buildings, no businesses, no economic activity, just roads, designed purely to get people away as fast as possible. That's hardly good for a city center that's got very little economic activity.

One annoying thing with the new layout is the inability to get on to the ring road anti-clockwise if you are heading in from down the Warwick Road.

Shimla Spice demolished

Can't you just go down to the Butts and double back?

You can flap yes but in the rush hour that's a right pain. All that's happening now is everyone who wants to do that is heading down in to new Union Street and rejoining the ring road by Little Park Street.

Yet another crash yesterday morning at the new junction on the morning school run. That's three accidents I have now seen there in about three weeks! Some people are obviously just confused by it all. Did I also see the start of the main tower (the one with all the satellite dishes on) this morning starting to be dismantled?

Sorry to say but it appears The Rocket will be going Demolition of the Rocket Pub As part of the improvements to the railway station, work on the demolition of the Rocket Pub will start week beginning 29 June. This work will take around eleven weeks to complete. While the demolition is taking place, the site will be fully enclosed with netted herras fencing and a daily cleaning regime will be implemented by the contractor to minimise dust. There will some noise but working hours will be 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday to try and keep any disruption to a minimum. There will also be some footpath alterations to accommodate safe working distances but any new routes will be well signed. Once the demolition is complete the site will be used for contractors who will be building the new access tunnel underneath Warwick Road. If you need any further information please contact Greg Hanna Tel: 0121 285 4717 E-mail: gregory.hanna@slcrail.com

Even bigger ones have been sunk in Corporation Street, I assume for young trees? Hopefully they won't be chopped down when they reach maturity like so many other trees in Coventry

A few "then and now" photos showing some of the development so far: Junction of Eaton Road and Warwick Road 16 Oct 2014 / 9 Jul 2015 Eaton Road 10 Apr 2015 / 9 Jul 2015 Eaton Road from Station Square 16 Oct 2014 / 9 Jul 2015 Park Road towards Eaton Road 10 Apr 2015 / 9 Jul 2015

Station Tower? It's got a hole in it (photos from yesterday)

Hi all Station Tower demolition underway Work has started to demolish Station Tower in Coventry, as part of the Friargate re-development around the city's railway station. Station Tower Because of its proximity to other buildings the 15-storey tower is being taken down floor by floor. Contractors say the demolition should be completed by the end of the year.

Watch: Fifteen months of Coventry Friargate ring road roadworks in just three minutes PS. Someone tell the Telegraph it's a railway station, not a train station