Repairs to Bath Road, Cheltenham to finish by Saturday
ROADWORKS in one of Cheltenham's busiest roads will take until the end of the week to complete, but traders say the work is taking too long.
Traffic has been left in chaos after Bath Road was closed at its junction with the High Street two weeks ago after a sewer collapsed.
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Jay Rahman of Prithvi says work needs to be carried out quicker
Repairs by Severn Trent could be finished by Saturday after more than two weeks of work.
But an angry trader says the repairs are not proceeding fast enough, despite assurances by Severn Trent that it has been working around the clock to fix the problem.
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Jay Rahman, who runs indian restaurant Prithvi, said: "Every time I go past the roadworks, it seems there is nobody there.
"When you drive along the motorways, you see people working 24/7, whether it is 6am or midnight.
"But there is never anybody around on Saturdays or Sundays and they are certainly not around after 5pm during the week."
But Severn Trent said it had been working as quickly as it can to fix the road.
Sarah-Jayne O'Kane, customer engagement officer, said: "Although the road is scheduled to be closed until Saturday, our engineers on site are working seven days a week to try to complete the work as soon as possible and to avoid any disruption to the Christmas shopping period."
The work has left the start of a traffic experiment elsewhere in the town with no confirmed date.
A trial switch-off of traffic lights along St Margaret's Road has been postponed until the repairs in Bath Road have been completed.
But Shire Hall has vowed it will still go ahead before the Christmas season starts and hopes to begin it next week.
Gloucestershire county council highways manager, Jason Humm, said: "Due to Severn Trent's ongoing emergency works in Bath Road, traffic in sections of the route which use the signals have been busier than we would want it to be before going ahead with the trial.
"It is important that the trial reflects normal traffic patterns to judge its success.
"We are confident that once the works are completed we will be able to go ahead with the trial."
OPINION, P8
Comments
by Matt1006
Tuesday, November 06 2012, 1:41PM
“You would like to think that Gloucestershire Highway, plus the Highways Agency (who are responsible for the A40) are keeping close tabs on Severn Trent / Morgan Sindall, to make sure this work is being done as quickly as possible, although not to the detriment of the actual repair or the making-good of the road.
No doubt if a rush job was done resulting in more problems in the near future, Mr. Rahman would be straight back on the phone to TiG Towers to whine again. And just what does he know about water main repairs and the time it takes, anyway...??? Wonder what he'd think if he had a party of Severn Trent employees descend on his restaurant, who then complained about the time it takes to be served...
It will be done when it's done, and not before. His costumers do not on the whole drive to his restaurant and park directly outside, so I can't believe the road closure has had that much effect on his business. It's not as if the place is totally barricaded off and inaccessible to everything, even pedestrians.
And re. his comment about motorway roadworks being 24/7, perhaps he can confirm in which country he has seen this, because it isn't in the UK.”
by Takeaway22
Tuesday, November 06 2012, 12:22PM
“Is he still whinging?”
by jamescrosby1
Tuesday, November 06 2012, 12:08PM
“"When you drive along the motorways, you see people working 24/7, whether it is 6am or midnight."
You've got to be kidding. Motorway roadworks are notorious for having miles and miles of cones, then just now and again, when the wind is in the right direction you might just see a bloke in a hi-vis jacket. But he's probably sat in a cab reading the Sun.”
by disco2disco
Tuesday, November 06 2012, 11:48AM
“Definitely not anyone working on it Sunday so engineers being onsite 7 days a week is a blatant lie.”