Dates on which the county and district councils will jointly be ‘spring cleaning’ roads in the district

St Albans District Council and Hertfordshire County Council (Herts Highways) are joining forces to cleanse and repair heavily parked roads in our district. The dates in Central Division are shown below.

Clarence Road, St Albans 14/07/09-16/07/09
Hart Road, St Albans 15/07/09
Pageant Road, St Albans 15/07/09
Sopwell Lane, St Albans 15/07/09
Old London Road, St Albans 20/07/09
Grosvenor Road, St Albans 21/07/09-22/07/09
Bardwell Road, St Albans 23/07/09-24/07/09

Highways update

Notes from highways officials

Beechwood Avenue: Accident Statistics required following recent work: not available at present will providde when published.
Holywell Hill: Antiskid works. Works ordered and due to be carried out imminently.
Sopwell Lane: White lining and extension of lines around humps. To be carried out under streetscene, provisionaly date July / August 09.

Road closure orders affecting this division

Extracts from official notice

HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

TEMPORARY CLOSING AND TEMPORARY WAITING RESTRICTIONS IN VARIOUS ROADS IN ST ALBANS, COLNEY HEATH, LONDON COLNEY AND HARPENDEN

NOTICE is given that the Hertfordshire County Council intend to make an Order under Section 14[1] of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, to prohibit all traffic from using the following lengths of roads, except for access and to prohibit all vehicles from waiting on both sides of these lengths of roads whilst works are in progress:-

1. that length of Bardwell Road, St Albans from its junction with Malthouse Court south eastwards to its junction with Thorpe Road, a distance of approximately 90 metres.

6. that length of Church Street, St Albans from its junction with Bernard Street north eastwards to its junction with Grange Street, a distance of approximately 188 metres.

The alternative route for traffic will be via:-
Grange Street, A1081 St Peters Street, A4147 Catherine Street and Bernard Street

7. that length of Clarence Road, St Albans from its junction with Sandpit Lane south westwards to its junction with A1057 Hatfield Road, a distance of approximately 917 metres.

The alternative route for traffic will be via:-
A1057 Hatfield Road, Lemsford Road and Sandpit Lane

10. that length of Grosvenor Road, St Albans from its junction with Ridgmont Road south eastwards and south westwards to its junction with the A1081 London Road/Orient Close roundabout, a distance of approximately 240 metres.

The alternative route for traffic will be via:-
Grosvenor Road, Alma Road and A1081 London Road

11. that length of Hart Road, St Albans from its junction with Keyfield Terrace north westwards and south westwards to its junction with Pageant Road, a distance of approximately 207 metres.

12. that length of Pageant Road, St Albans from its junction with Keyfield Terrace north westwards for its entire length.

18. that length of Old London Road, St Albans from its junction with Watsons Walk south eastwards to its junction with A1081 London Road, a distance of approximately 462 metres.

The alternative route for traffic will be via:-
A1081 London Road and Watsons Walk

20. that length of Sopwell Lane, St Albans from its junction with A5183 Holywell Hill south eastwards and north eastwards to its junction with Old London Road, a distance of approximately 360 metres.

The alternative route for traffic will be via:-
Old London Road, Watsons Walk, A1081 London Road and A5183 Holywell Hill

The purpose of the Order is to enable carriageway patching works together with gully cleaning works to take place.

It is anticipated that the sections of roads will each be closed and the temporary waiting restrictions will be in place between the hours of 7.30am and 5.00pm (Mondays to Fridays inclusive) for up to 3 days, sometime during the period 29 June 2009 and 30 September 2009, when signs are in place.

If you have any queries about the carriageway patching works together with gully cleaning works, the temporary road closures or the temporary waiting restrictions, please contact the Project Engineer concerned Simon Whiskin tel. 07766 134384 at the Mid West Herts Hertfordshire Highways Area Office.

County Hall
Hertford 11 June 2009
Herts John Wood
SG13 8DN Director of Environment

Flooding campaign

Please keep the entries coming. Most recently observed are flooding problems at:
– junction of Essex Road and St Peter’s Road
– junction of Manor Road and Hillside Road

These I have taken up with Herts Highways.

Further highways works scheduled for July

Sopwell Lane near Hare and Hounds: existing black top footway will be redone.
Bardwell Road: path pipes will be redone where necessary.
Clarence Road: carriageway patching is on its way.

‘Pathpipes’ are the metal covered drains which cross the pavement taking water away from housefronts into the gutter. After a seemingly endless struggle, I got Herts Highways to redo the ones in Albert Street last year.

News about motorways

Note from the county council:

You may have heard on the news that the Highways Agency have finally been
able to sign a contract with a consortia of contractors (Connect Plus) for
a massive construction and maintenance contract for the M25 and the “stubs
and tails” of radial motorways including the M1 and A1(m) in Hertfordshire.
The contract is worth £6.2 billion and lasts for 30 years

The contract includes all the widening works that we have been hearing
about on these motorways, tunnel refurbishments and on going maintenance

In particular in Hertfordshire, the M25 widening between J16 (M40) and J23
(A1(m)) and A1(m) Hatfield Tunnel refurbishment are now free to commence

We will share more detail as we get it but I have just heard that:

* the traffic management on the M25 between J 16 (M40) and J 18
Chorleywood will start to go in from midnight on Tuesday 26/5/06. There
will still be three lanes in each direction and a 50 mph limit will be
introduced to be enforced by average speed cameras

* the traffic management on the A1(m) for the Hatfield Tunnel works will
start to go in at midnight on 1/6/09, initially this will be two lanes
on each carriageway and will change to two lane contraflow after 2-3
months. Both junctions 3 and 4 will remain open. There will be a 40 mph
limit in place enforced by average speed cameras

In addition, I have just been made aware that there will be a contraflow on
the A1(m) in the vicinity of J9 (Letchworth Gate) to facilitate repairs to
bridge joints. This will be in place from September to December 2009. There
will be a 50 mph speed limit enforced by average speed cameras.

Blue blocks causing concern

Blue block pavements throughout the division have been neglected by the county council. I have recently drawn their attention to two sections:
Avenue Road and Grimston Road

Both need completely relaying. I have not received any assurances that this will happen.

Ridgmont Road and Bedford Road: highways update

Ridgmont Road: both carriageway and footway are disintegrating: footway repairs are about to happen on the east side but there is inadequate funding for both sides to be mended.

Bedford Road footways: these will be repaired as part of local discretionary funding this year. The collapsed section is going to be reconstructed down to a depth of 20 cm: this will take a week.

it would appear that the black bin collections are now being made without a large vehicle entering the street and damaging the pavements. The green bin collections present a different problems and Herts Highways and the district council are negotiating.

Highways vehicles lying idle in Lemsford Road

I have no idea what these are doing either. They were there on Thursday and Friday with no sign of life.

2009_051311jan0700271.jpg
Chris White and Sandy Walkington were surprised to find signs that Lemsford Road was about to be repaired at last – but of course it was just vehicles lying idle.

Meanwhile Lemsford Road has been voted in as one of the four roads of shame in St Albans Central Division by local residents who responded to our highways survey. The full list is:

Lemsford Road
Hatfield Road at the railway bridge
Victoria Street at the railway bridge
Woodstock Road South

Clearly there are many, many others which give cause for concern – but these struck you as the worst.