|

Southdown Roads Maintenance

Updated on

Southdown Roads Maintenance

Southdown Road MaintenanceHampshire County Council is shortly expected to carry out a variety of maintenance treatments based upon extending the resilience and life of the highway network. A four month schedule of works, throughout the county, will begin on 19 March and will include the following roads within the parish: Cross Way, Fairfield Road, Southdown Road and Grove Road. All householders in those areas will receive individual letters before the work starts.

According to the traffic engineers, the work is

“an investment in Hampshire’s infrastructure for the long term, marking a substantial shift in emphasis from reactive to planned maintenance – which is much more cost effective in the long run, making them more resilient to the effects of extreme weather, such as snow and ice. Although the named roads may appear sound, fine cracks and worn areas are starting to appear and if left untreated will deteriorate further”.

The engineers have requested that, on the day work takes place, residents should not park in the road and be prepared not to move cars until the road has been treated. They also caution that, since the works are weather sensitive, exact dates cannot be provided at this time. Signs providing information on the start dates will be provided and will be updated as soon as possible should there be any programme changes.

Should residents of the roads named above have any queries regarding these works, they should telephone the HCC contact centre on 0300 555 1388.

Extract of email from Hampshire Highways to District Councillor

Subject: Operation Resilience – 2018 Minor Road Carriageway surface dressing treatments programme – Enquiry #7039202

Dear All,

I am writing to you to inform you of my intention to carry out this year’s programme of surface dressing treatments, some sites of which are in your division.

The purpose of the treatments is to seal the road structure from water ingress, which arrests the formation of potholes.

The treatment is not designed to regulate the shape of the road in any way. The process of surface dressing involves spraying a finely calibrated amount of bitumen on to the existing, cleansed, road surface, followed by feeding a calibrated amount of aggregate on to the film of bitumen. The treatment is briefly rolled to begin the embedment process which is completed by the action of vehicles moving over the treatment slowly.

It should be noted that the treatment does require to be ‘overchipped’ to ensure there is sufficient aggregate to completely cover the bitumen, and therefore loose material will be present on the surface. Signs will be erected to warn drivers of this risk and encourage them to drive slowly to prevent damage to their own cars, other people’s cars and the treatment itself.

The loose material will be removed by a mechanical sweeper after twenty four hours and again after two weeks. Road markings will be installed within two weeks unless poor weather is experienced.

Whilst the treatments are carried out, every effort will be made to minimise disruption to highway users, although for Health and Safety reasons much of the work will require a road closure. Pedestrian access to property will not be affected although vehicular movement will be restricted because of the size and nature of the plant required to carry out the work. Naturally, none of this applies to emergency vehicles.

The programme will be delivered by two teams and they are estimated to start 19 March 2018 and finish in June / July 2018. Most sites will be completed in one day except the largest which will take two days. Roads that are not completed in one day will be reopened overnight. Notification will be provided via signs on site and, where required, a letter just before the works start, the letters explain the nature of the works and the restrictions necessary.

The reason for the two stage notification system stems from the volatility of the programme. The process is weather sensitive, accordingly, changes to dates and times are likely, and often at short notice. The pre warning signs will be updated as soon as possible to help inform the travelling public and residents alike.

Your sincerely

Tom Griffiths
Assistant Highway Engineer – Planned Maintenance Hampshire Highways

(webmaster’s emphasis)