Water network upgrades on a busy Essex road are set to finish weeks ahead of schedule.
With work on London Road, Benfleet nearing completion, Essex & Suffolk Water, Essex County Council Highways experts and Essex County Councillor Andrew Sheldon have come together to agree plans for delivering the final stages in a way that’s aimed at minimising impact on road users.
As well as general road users, the plans are aimed at helping traffic flow for those sitting their exams.
The £500,000 project involves replacing water mains and connecting services and is the final phase of work to reduce the potential for pipe bursts causing major, unplanned impact on the road network.
The group worked for more than a year to plan the network upgrades between Sadlers Farm roundabout and the Tarpots junction. Now, with the work more than two weeks ahead of schedule, thanks to the efforts of the water workers, plans have been put in place for the accelerated remaining stages.
Subject to continued good progress:
· Work on the westbound carriageway is due to complete on June 9.
· To enable work to move to the eastbound carriageway from June 10, one of the westbound carriageways will be used as a contraflow, allowing two eastbound lanes to remain open to traffic until June 24.
· After June 24, eastbound traffic will reduce to one lane, to allow safe working in the central area of the road.
· It is anticipated that continued good progress will allow for work to be completed by the start of July.
Essex & Suffolk Water’s Project Manager, Daren Still, said: “The final elements of this project involve working in the eastbound side of London Road, and we are all very conscious that this is the busiest part of the road, with traffic coming off the Sadlers Farm roundabout - and we are also aware that we are now in exam season. So, we have drawn up and agreed plans with Essex Highways and Councillor Sheldon that keep traffic flowing in two lanes until after the GCSEs.
“We would like to thank road users for their patience so far, and the team will be pressing ahead to continue the good progress on this work, which remains well ahead of schedule.”
Councillor Sheldon said: “This is important work that has to be done. With the final phase of this work done, the old main under the Tarpots junction that keeps bursting will be finally switched off. I am very pleased that Essex & Suffolk Water are ahead of schedule and are due to finish early. The sooner these works are off the road the better.
“My big concern with the eastbound works is that they will be in the GCSE exam season and everything should be done to minimise traffic to ensure students get to their exams on time in the morning. I am very grateful that Essex & Suffolk Water agreed to sit around the table and come up with a solution that will see both eastbound lanes open in the morning.”
The first phase of work saw a new pipe slid into the existing larger pipe beneath the road by a team working in the middle of the roundabout – a method that allowed almost a kilometre of pipe to be renewed without having any impact at all upon road users, reducing the overall duration of the roadworks by months.
On this final phase, the water company’s teams are working between 7am and 7pm, with a further two hours set aside each day for contractors to carry out related backfilling and road reinstatement work to allow them to move on to the next section of road.
The team is working closely within permits from the council that dictate which elements of work can be carried out, and the area of highway that can be worked in, at any time.