Over the past few months, there has been a high volume of vital but disruptive works happening on roads across the whole borough. Though the upgrades and repairs being worked on can’t be avoided, we understand the frustration caused by the resulting heavy traffic.
Last weekend, we saw an unprecedented strain put on our road network in the Mitcham area as a result of two road closures that were put in place for emergency works.
Both closures – one on Church Road and the other on Eastfields Road – were caused by burst water pipes. When emergencies like this happen, the utilities companies are allowed to close a road without notice, and we were only notified after the closure. This was the same for the emergency sewer works on Wimbledon Hill Road in the autumn. The works on both Church Road and Eastfields Road have now been completed, and the roads reopened.
It is unusual to see two emergency closures over one weekend, especially in the same part of the borough. Both of these incidents coincided with a number of other scheduled closures in Mitcham that are in place to replace both the water and gas mains – most notably on London Road and Western Road. These water and gas mains replacement works, were also the cause of the disruption in Commonside East earlier this year, are a key step in reducing leaks and therefore important for reducing future emergency works. Once completed, the new plastic pipes will have a lifespan of at least 100 years.
The emergency works on Church Road were particularly unfortunate, as that was intended to be the diversion for the scheduled works on Western Road.
We know roadworks cause frustration for residents and are working hard to minimise disruption. That’s why we are going through the steps to bring in what’s called a lane rental scheme on our busiest roads, which will introduce a much greater financial incentive for utility companies to finish works as quickly as possible. Currently, we charge companies who need to carry our works a fee for a licence, and then we fine them if they run over the agreed time allowed. The lane rental scheme would allow us to charge a daily rate which would be significantly higher than the current licence fee.
Alongside this, we continue to take action to alleviate traffic where possible. For the Streatham Road works, we temporarily lifted Low Traffic Neighbourhood restrictions to relieve pressure on our local road network. Our Highways team also work collaboratively with every company that applies for a licence to ensure that they are working as efficiently as possible – such as insisting on modern methods of working that only require holes to be dug at each end of gas pipes, rather than the whole length, as happened on Commonside East.
Councillor Stephen Alambritis, Cabinet Member for Transport, said: “Having sat in the traffic myself, I completely understand the frustrations of those that live in and travel through Mitcham.
“We never like to close our roads, but it’s vitally important that we upgrade our aging metal gas and water pipes to modern plastic ones that will have a far longer life span and reduce the need for further road closures in the future.
“The emergency closures that we saw over the weekend are unfortunately out of our hands, but what we can do is ensure that these disruptions are kept to a minimum, and the repair works are finished on time. We’ve done it before – fining companies £1.2 million over the last 5 years for overrunning works and non-compliance – and our proposed Lane Rental scheme will enhance the financial incentive for the utility companies to work more efficiently and minimise disruption.”
If you are a business that has suffered disruption from the works, you could be entitled to compensation. If the disruption was caused by gas works please visit the SGN compensation webpage for further information. If the disruption was caused by water works, visit the Thames Water compensation webpage.