Many if not most Coulsdon residents will have experienced the terrible delays on the Brighton Road caused by the recent temporary traffic lights. I myself have been caught many times, stuck in the traffic that's spread from the old Purley Town Hall all the way down and under the Farthing Way/Leaden Hill rail bridge.
Residents have complained about 24/7 drilling, bins not being collected due to the obstacles, and lack of urgency on the works that appeared to have low manpower and so progressed slowly.
I first wrote to the Council and SGN nearly a fortnight ago, outlining all these concerns and expressed my dismay that residents have not received a single piece of communication from an authority about the works. Despite multiple chasing I only received a reply late yesterday. This I copy below in full:
This work started on 7 Feb when we discovered a leak in the gas pipe network. This leak was assessed as a risk to the surrounding community and therefore our engineers are required to work 24 hours to control the leak, to complete this, it has been necessary to use temporary traffic lights to manage vehicles past the worksite. Unfortunately, when this happens, there is noise, which we recognise is disruptive for residents in the immediate area. The drilling pattern, is often not continuous to allow for regular review of the pipe condition or additional manual excavation. Unfortunately the gas escape on the southbound carriageway is on our medium pressure main of which a deep excavation permit/risk assessment and shuttering are required.
We have now reduced the risk to the pipe, however remedial work is still required, which, due to a number of factors, cannot be carried out immediately.
A letter will be given to the residents to explain the situation, this would not have been possible at the time due to the timescales and now we are in a better position to provide an update. I am unsure as to why the dustman are unable to collect the bins, our works site has been kept to a minimum distance and our engineers are instructed to assist any utilities that may struggle within our sites
This was a complex leak which has now been controlled and can be remedied, however due to COVID absences we have not been able to allocate the resources to the remediation of the leak, we are now in a position to do this and I understand that some of excavation holes are now being reinstated and we are looking to complete the work by 25-02-22. I have one of my team managers Tony Vitler visiting site every day to ensure the gas escape repairs are progressing.
Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience caused to the local residents and the community.
Following my urging, the letter explaining what's been going on will soon be delivered to affected residents. A copy of the letter is attached below.
UPDATE
I've just been informed that:
A little bit of good news, the gas escape was finally fixed late on in the day today, unfortunately we uncovered a cable in the excavation with a fault on it so it has been reported to UKPN whom are repairing overnight tonight. All being good the reinstatement can be passed over to our reinstatement contractors tomorrow, with site clear Wednesday evening.
UPDATE - 25/2/22
Update just received from SGN: 'The tarmac teams were onsite early today, so just needs a little time to cure/cool, we have it scheduled in for site clear and lights down at 3pm today, hopefully everyone will have a delay free journey home from work this evening on the said route.'
