Whatever you do – don’t be in a hurry to get through Bramley on the A281 this week. And don’t drink the water!
Roadworks are enough to persuade By-Pass Byham out of retirement and back into his old seat at ‘Your Waverley.’ It’s chaotic, with three-way traffic lights, blokes in high-viz jackets, and barriers as far as the eye can see!
Now MP Jeremy’s Hunt, the wannabe MP for Godalming & Ash, is concerned about Bramley’s drinking water, particularly the drinking water source to Megabucks St Catherine’s School! He has called in the UK Health Security Agency.
It has only been a few months since the area’s residents had no water—now their water is contaminated!
Phase 1: Closure of the Northeast quadrant; replacing 60m of pipework on the A281 running north from the roundabout; timescale four weeks, then… wait for it, folks, it gets worse…
Phase 2: Closure of the Southeast quadrant and replacement of a valve near the war memorial—timescale four weeks.
Traffic management
Draft traffic management plans submitted to SCC may be subject to variation, but TW wants you to see them before the work commences.
In summary, this means:
Thames Water will start setting up works to replace a section of the water main on Horsham Road (A281) and one of its valves on Station Road.
Because of the challenging ground conditions and the need to pump water out of the excavations, the work will be carried out over two phases, as described above.
The teams’ hours will be 7 am to 7 pm, seven days a week until completion.
Three-way traffic lights will be in place for the A281 and the junction with Station Road.
Traffic management will be manned on-site from 7 am to 7 pm, so the traffic light phasing can be adjusted as required to assist traffic flow.
Snowdenham Lane from the roundabout will be closed during work, and access will be restricted. A diversion route via Foxburrow Hill Road will be established.Crossing points for pedestrians will be installed on Station Road for the duration of the work. The Zebra crossing will be maintained.
Thames Water and BT Openreach are investigating whether the work of both parties can be safely undertaken in Phase 2 to minimise disruption for Bramley residents.
In the old days, when the country was run in an organised manner, major disruptive roadworks were carried out at night, to minimise inconvenience. The roads were nowhere near as busy then but the country saw the benefit. Now that money is the only factor (and presumably night working is more expensive) civilised thought goes out of the window. Travelling through Bramley is bad enough at the best of times now 8 weeks of long delays is ridiculous. Where has common sense gone? Better to work 7pm to 7am.
How right you are – the disruption is having a huge effect on commuters, deliveries, local businesses and everyone’s mental health. Does anyone ever measure these factors, or are we going to hell in a traffic queue?
So 8 weeks for water pipes valve repairs – how much for BT open reach? And if their work can’t be done in parallel in one of the phases will there effectively be a phase 3 for BT so work in Bramley won’t finish till August / September?