Back in February Cllrs Dwesar and Gander reported on the planned closure of Old Lodge Lane railway bridge so that a refurbishment of the bridge could be undertaken.
As closure of this road had the potential to cause excessive disruption to residents, we encouraged the council and Network Rail to hold a public meeting to consult on the proposed three options for work:
- Option1: full road closure
- Option 2: weekend closures
- Option 3: Night closures
Attendees were very clear that a full closure of the road was unacceptable, but there were also concerns at the noise levels of works being taken at night. At this point a fourth option was considered:
- weekend closures to enable the noisier works to taken place, and then a switch to night working for the quieter works.
Network Rail and their contractor BAM Nuttall have now finalised the plans, and letters are being delivered to properties in the area shown in the map below. Needless to say, a closure of this nature will affect people far and wide and so we wanted to update residents on the plans.
The text below is copied from Network Rail’s letter:
Railway Improvement Works – Old Lodge Lane Bridge Refurbishment Works
I am writing to let you know that we will be carrying out refurbishment works on the bridge on Old Lodge Lane located near to Reedham Station. This will give the bridge a maintenance free life of 15 - 20 years and greatly improve the appearance of the bridge.
The works will involve high pressure water jetting to the bridge to remove the corrosion and existing paint, steelwork repairs to strengthen the bridge and protective coating application. Also included in the refurbishment are; brickwork repairs, drainage and bird prevention mesh. The designated compound and storage area will be located within the nearby school playing fields.
These works have been carefully planned to implement as much of the noisy works as possible during the series of weekends and the quieter works during weekday nights. There will still be some noise during the mid week night works, but every effort will be made to minimise this.
To facilitate these works, there will be traffic management in place consisting of a full road closure and bus stop suspensions on Old Lodge Lane during the planned times. During the weekend only phase of the works, Old Lodge Lane will be closed from 2300 Friday to Monday 0500. During the mid week night works, Old Lodge Lane will be closed from 2330 to 0500 each night from Monday to Friday.
Pedestrian will still be able to walk from one side of the structure to the other within a protected scaffold tunnel during closures. BAM will install additional signage to ensure customers know businesses are still open as usual. During the four weekend closures, there will be a shuttle bus service operating in substitute of the normal bus services.
Shuttle bus services will operate as follows:
- Shuttle buses will operate on Saturdays and Sundays from 5:30 am to 11:00 pm during the weekend closures.
- The shuttle bus will travel up and down Old Lodge, stopping at each bus stop from Reedham Station to New Valley School.
- A separate bus service will run from Old Lodge Lane at the bridge to Tesco Extra in Purely. This bus will also stop at the Grovesdale bus stop on the way to Tesco.
- During mid-week night closures, the last bus service passing through Old Lodge Lane will be at 11:30 pm. The normal bus service will resume at 5:30 am.
Work will be carried out as follows:
Delivering the highest standards of safety is paramount to our work and keeping people safe on and around the railway is at the heart of everything we do. Often, work needs to be carried out while trains are not running. We’re obliged to work, whenever possible, at times that cause the least disruption to train services. Unfortunately, this means carrying out a lot of our improvements during the night and at weekends.
We apologise for any disturbance and inconvenience that these essential works may cause you, but we need to make sure, that we can run a safe, reliable railway. All staff working on site are fully briefed on working responsibly in the local community and keeping noise levels to an absolute minimum level.
I hope this information is helpful to you but if you have any additional questions or concerns, please telephone our 24-Hour National Helpline on 03457 11 41 41 or visit www.networkrail.co.uk quoting Old Lodge Lane Bridge Refurbishment Works.
