We have received the following information today from Lyn Harvey , District Highways Engineer at Essex County Council, which we quote with her agreement:
This is the first section of footway improvements planned for Rawreth Lane ? we have the best part of ?100k of Capital Funding to spend on improving the footway along the length of the road. We will be working towards the West initially on the south side of the road to connect up with the new Asda works and then consider works on the north side of the road.
The funding available must be spent before the end of this financial year but of course unfortunately the success of our bid coincided with the Wimpey/Asda works and ECC could not add to the problems experienced on the road by carrying out additional works at the same time.
I expect we shall get complaints as I?m sure everyone is fed up with ?works? in the road however an allocation of this amount of funding should be considered good news for the area.
We discussed leaving the works until after Xmas but timescales would then be tight to complete before the end of the financial year and decided that to continue directly after the completion of the Asda works would be best as the travelling public have got used to the traffic management problems and alternative travelling patterns have become the norm.
Over the years we have received complaints about the poor state of the pavement along Rawreth Lane so it is good to see that work is being done.
So if they are claiming they would have trouble completing the works before the end of the financial year (6th April) if they delayed until after Christmas, are we to assume this work is going to last for close to 3 months?
Still, I agree that the work to the pavements is needed, some are truly shocking in the area.
Is there any thought into provisions for cyclists, following the recent news of two teenagers hurt in Rawreth Lane whilst using their bikes? I never did find out any details of this incident, but with the link from the new sports centre to the Sweyne Park bridle Path, it looks like the need to cycle along much of Rawreth Lane could be reduced with a bit of planning and advertising.
we were led to believe as a parish council that a duel pedestrian/cycleway on the north side of rawreth lane between bedloes and the park site would be provided as part of the post byepass improvements and also as a link from the old village to our new school to enable t
he children a safe and environmentally
sound route . We have not been informed as to whether that is the scheme lyn harvey refers ….we can only hope.
further to previous lyn harvey states that vehicles have found alternative routes to avoid continuous road works in rawreth lane you bet try watery lane/beeches now it is worse than ever!
It would make sense to turn the use of the pavement over to dual purpose pedestrian/cyclist use, as common sense shows that this stretch of pavement does not have much pedestrian use. Obviously it also requires some common sense and courtesy from cyclists when approaching pedestrians.
Can it be done without the expense of unsightly markings on the pavement, perhaps just using information signs along the route?
Not wanting to drag up the whole Asda arguement again, but does anyone think the phasing of the traffic lights is wrong?
This morning the lights were red as I approached, so I had to stop and wait. The lights then changed to green, but the this period was so short that only four cars got through before they changed to red again.
I’ve also seen the lights change to allow traffic out of the Park School site, even when there were no cars waiting there.
As I drove past the Asda lights this afternoon it looked like engineers were ‘tweaking’ the lights – hopefully to the benefit of us all!
Were there two crashes at the Asda lights last night?
Not sure about crashes at the Asda lights on Tuesday night, but there was broken headlamp glass on the junction when I drove through it on Sunday morning.
Have they finished this pavement resurfacing in Rawreth Lane? I was wondering because they appear to have missed a big section of pavement between Caversham Park Avenue and Downhall Park Way. Is this intended?
Good question.
We’ll ask!
To add to ST1,s comment, no sign yet of pavement renewal on the north side of Rawreth Lane from Trenders Avenue eastward for about 100 yards.