THE HUGE DEBT BRIGG OWES TO THE M180 DEMONSTRATED BY YESTERDAY'S TRAFFIC CONGESTION

Yesterday's re-routing of vehicles through Brigg due to an incident on the M180 demonstrated the wisdom of building this motorway in the late 1970s.
Just imagine the volume of extra traffic diverted from the motorway that our town endured for much of yesterday coming through Brigg every day!
That would be the case if the government had decided against building the motorway which became a more humble A-road for the final stretch eastbound from Barnetby Top. 
Did  they run out of money to finish the job as far as Grimsby?
Yet once the M180 had been sanctioned  there were businesses in Brigg concerned about the loss of  "passing trade." 
It was not so much that they were against the motorway, but they realised that drivers travelling between Grimsby and Immingham and Scunthorpe and Doncaster would be unaware of what Brigg had to offer once they took the M-way instead of the A18.
Therefore, a business-led campaign to Keep Brigg on the Map came into being.
The arrival of the motorway did not bring instant relief from heavy traffic for Brigg. 
This was because it took some  years for the government to add the vital M180/A15 link road from Briggate Lodge roundabout to a point south of Redbourne. 
Until that opened,  many lorries from the Immingham/Grimsby area still left the motorway at Barnetby Top and followed the A18 through Wrawby, Brigg, Hibaldstow and Redbourne to join the A15 near the Lincolnshire/Humberside border, as it then was.
Whenever they have to close all, or part, of the M180, due to accidents, lorry fires or bad weather, the subsequent diversion of traffic through Brigg - and the tailbacks that result - give us  a timely reminder that we owe an awful lot to the M180 and the people who released the funds for its construction all those years ago.