Latest Access to Headington update

Here is the latest from County about the Access to Headington scheme.

The Slade

We have now completed the work between the mini roundabout at Hollow Way and Wood Farm Road and we are looking to complete the current phase of work between Wood Farm Road and Slade Close before Christmas.

We will start the last phase after Christmas between Slade Close and Old Road – this will take approximately four weeks to complete.

Traffic management will remain in place over the Christmas period, though we will remove as much as we can. Daily safety checks will be carried out

 

Churchill Drive/Roosevelt Drive 

We are working in the final phase of this set of works and are on schedule to complete the main construction work before Christmas. There may be some minor work to do after Christmas but this will be minor and will cause little disruption.

The majority of the traffic management will be removed over the Christmas period however Churchill Drive will remain as access only and traffic leaving the Churchill site will continue to be diverted via Roosevelt Drive. The permanent traffic lights on Old Road have been switched on this week.

 

Headley Way

The team will start setting up begin on Tuesday 16th January, but this should not be disruptive to traffic. Construction work will start on Tuesday 23rd January. Information on programme of work will follow early January.

We are going to be holding a public exhibition on Thursday 14th December at the Heading Prep School between 2:30pm and 6:30pm. This is an opportunity to speak to members of the project team from the County Council, Skanska and the Designers. All aspects of the project remain the same as per the last public exhibition held in the Summer and all drawings can be found on the Oxfordshire County Council website.

 

Christmas Shut Down

All work will cease on Friday 22nd December for the Christmas period. Work will begin again on Tuesday 2nd January. Traffic management will remain in place during the closure for safety reasons. Regular safety checks will be made.

Kennett Road may re-open this afternoon

No obvious leakage has been found by workmen digging into the hole as far as the pipes.  Apparently the ground is quite sandy once the road surface is broken into.
There is no obvious reason for this hole to have appeared, so the issue is considered to be resolved. The sub-soil has been replaced and the road has been reconstructed with two layers of tarmac.
Today they will top surface it, and then a curing period will be needed before anyone can drive over it.
The network supervisor is hoping that the road may be re-opened this afternoon and certainly by the peak period for traffic.

UPDATE: Kennett Road now open again

Kennett Road sink hole

We have sent the following email to Kennett Road residents.

Dear all

Thanks to all residents for alerting us to this pothole.

I asked the Highways Technician to sort this out, he sent down a team to give it a temporary fix but this failed. I contacted him again and he arranged to inspect the site- his concern was that if the temp fix had failed, then this was likely to be a sink hole and not a pothole. That would require the Highways Authority to call in Thames Water to assess it.

The inspection was done and Thames Water were called in. What happens in this scenario is that if any accidents happen meantime due to a sink hole, then claims need to be made to Thames Water.

Yesterday night I received a number of messages from various residents saying the sink hole was getting bigger so I called in the out of hours service to make it safe, but this is still a temporary fix.

Here is the advice sent to us this morning by the network supervisor at the Council:

We had a crew attended site last night and made safe again, I have contacted TW once again, and they have said they have carried out a CCTV survey and have denied that it’s their responsibility.

We will monitor this in the short term and will arrange for a team to attend site and carry out some investigation work,  but I’m not convinced they have done a complete survey and have asked for the survey report, as I don’t want to spend tax payers money and resources on a TW assets. If we find out it is there issue I will look at recovering the cost

The annoying thing when ownership of a problem is disputed is that the situation can take longer to get resolved. Altaf and I will keep pushing on this to try to get as fast a solution as possible, but in the meantime we would be grateful if you could contact us if you think the hole is once again becoming unsafe. Putting it bluntly, if the first temporary fix didn’t work, this one won’t either, so we need to watch this closely.

Just wanted to keep you updated

Regards, Ruth and Altaf

 

 

Temporary overnight closures of Old Road

Here is the latest from the County Council

TRAFFIC REGULATION NOTICE

ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT, 1984

Notice is hereby given pursuant to Section 14(2) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act, 1984, that the Oxfordshire County Council 

TEMPORARILY PROHIBITS THE USE OF THE HIGHWAY BY ALL MOTOR VEHICLES         

 LOCATION:          Oxford, Headington, Old Road        

 REASON:             To facilitate carriageway improvement works  

DURATION:          Night works starting on 30 October 2017 (8pm – 5am)

The anticipated completion date is 3 November 2017

(Traffic Regulation Notices cover a maximum of 5 consecutive days.)

PLEASE NOTE Although the closures are scheduled for 5 nights, the work is probably going to take less time than this – extreme weather conditions have been factored in.                                                                               

ACCESS:             Limited access will be maintained for emergency service vehicles and for frontages within the closed section of road, subject to the progress of the works

 SUGGESTED ALTERNATIVE ROUTE: Roosevelt Drive – Gipsy Lane – A420 – Windmill Road – Old Road & vice-versa.

A map of the works area (part of the Access to Headington scheme) may be viewed below.

Access to Headington: works affecting Old Road, Churchill Drive, Roosevelt Drive

Here is the letter sent to all residents in the area by the County Council

Dear Sir/ Madam

Re: Access to Headington – Churchill Drive, Old Road and Roosevelt Drive

We wanted to let you know that on 11th September we will begin work on Churchill Drive and it’s junction with Old Road.

The work involves installing traffic lights at the junction as well as re-aligning parts of the footway. We will also be doing small amounts of work at the Roosevelt Drive/Churchill Drive junction. The work is programmed to take 15 weeks to complete.

Over the first 9 weeks of the project we will be working mainly on Old Road under two-way temporary traffic lights. During this time Churchill Drive will be access only from Old Road, however emergency vehicles will also be able to exit onto Old Road from Churchill Drive. All other vehicles will be diverted via Roosevelt Drive.

Lime Walk will also be partially closed over the first 9 weeks. Vehicles will be able to access Lime Walk from Old Road but those wishing to exit onto Old Road will have to do so via Stapleton Road. We will be suspending 5 parking spaces on Lime Walk (spaces closest to Old Road) whilst we carry out the works around the junction.

We will be undertaking 1 weeks’ worth of night works (scheduled for week commencing 23rd October – subject to change) in order to carry out surfacing to the carriageway on Old Road. Night works take place between 8pm and 6am, though very noisy work will cease at 11pm as per our Section 61 agreement with Oxford City Council.

Once the work on Old Road has been complete, we will begin a short period of works to the junction of Roosevelt Drive/Churchill Drive. This involves some re-aligning of the kerbs as well as installation of cables under the road surface.

More information on this set of works and other sections of Access to Headington can be found on the Oxfordshire County Council website at the following address www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/accessheadington. You can also sign up to our regular e-bulletins at www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/travelchoices.

The work will be carried out by Skanska Construction. Should you have any questions or concerns regarding the project please contact our site project team at accessheadington@oxfordshire.gov.uk or you can call Oxfordshire County Council’s Customer Services team on 0845 310 1111.

We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause you and thank you for your cooperation.

Windmill Rd 20 MPH limit is hot topic at Ward Focus Meeting Tuesday 25 July

The County Council intends to make Windmill Road 20 MPH. It is carrying out a consultation on this currently (see below post)

We shall be listening closely to the views of our residents at the Ward Focus meeting on 25th July at All Saints Church House, New High Street 6:00-7:30 on this, and will be conducting street surgeries in the area, details to be announced shortly.

Once we have a clear understanding of residents’ views, we shall submit a response to the consultation – do get in touch with us to raise your issues. We already know and understand that a large number of residents believe that a speed limit can only be effective if there is enforcement too.

 

Windmill Road 20 MPH limit

The County Council issued the following notice in the local press yesterday.

A full set of consultation documents is available on the Oxfordshire County Council website here

Objections to the proposals and other representations, specifying the grounds on which they are made, may be sent in by completing the online questionnaire or by writing (quoting ref: AK/12.6.134) to the officer below by 11 August 2017.

Christian Mauz, Oxfordshire County Council, County Hall, New Road, Oxford OX1 1ND

The Council will consider objections and representations received in response and they may be disseminated widely for these purposes and made available to the public.

Any unresolved objections will be reported to the Council’s Cabinet meeting later in 2017. The papers for the meeting will be available on the County Council’s website about a week before the meeting.

Temporary road closure: Latimer Road next Saturday and Sunday

We have received this notice from the County Council

Temporary Traffic Regulation Notice – S14 Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984

Temporary Road/Bridleway/Footpath Closure – at:

Oxford – Latimer Road, Headington – Adjacent to the junction with A420 London Road – Outside the Winvic site 

A request has been received from Nationwide Traffic Solutions for a temporary road closure to apply to a length of Latimer Road, Headington, Oxford for a crane operation to remove a tower crane from the Winvic site.

A Temporary Traffic Regulation Notice is being made to implement the temporary closure and will operate on:

15 & 16 July 2017 – 6am to 10pm each day

 Access will be maintained for emergency service vehicles and for those frontages within the closure area, subject to the progress of the works. Please note that access routes will depend on exactly where the works vehicles are at any time and may need to be negotiated with the gang on site as necessary.

A copy of the drawing showing the extent of the closure and also the alternative routes for traffic is attached.

 

New crossing at Old Road/Gipsy Lane – why no bleeps?

We’ve had lots of complaints from residents that there is no audible crossing signal at the bottom of Old Road, crossing to Valentia Road and Gipsy Lane. We have asked the County Council why not. They have sent us the above leaflet and you will find their reply below.

Some of the pedestrian crossings can be served while other traffic is flowing, so we can give more opportunities to cross and reduce pedestrian waiting times significantly. This means that some crossings are at green while others are at red. If a visually impaired person is waiting at one crossing when a nearby crossing starts to bleep there is a very real concern that they may accidentally cross against a red man. I’m afraid we can’t have audibles here. For disabled users we do have the tactile rotating cone.

 I have attached the DfT leaflet in case you have other queries. This is intended to introduce pedestrians to the idea and explain how they are kept safe. This applies with or without audibles.