UPDATE 7 December 2024
Councillors have been in very regular contact over the past two years with the council’s flood team about the flooding that happens here. Actions have been taken to mitigate flooding in this area, including constructing a water storage area for all the surface water that flows into the dip where Welcomes Road meets Kenley Lane and Valley Road, and works to sort out the hydraulic issues in this area.
Following floods in October, the council informed me that further works are planned to take place before Christmas or at the start of the new year. This includes linking an existing soakaway to the newly constructed crate soakaway (i.e. constructing an overflow from the existing soakaway to the new crate soakaway. In addition, the council is considering installing monitoring devices (i.e. gully and soakaway sensors) in flood hotspots across the borough, to monitor water levels and provide early warnings to mitigate flood risk. Kenley Lane is one of the locations where it is proposing to pilot the monitoring devices once approval has been granted to procure the system.
UPDATE 16 February 2024
The streetworks have been cleared away for now and many people might be thinking, 'job done'. However, as soon as a permit is obtained (it can be time consuming to get these, particularly on a bus route where TfL also have to consider diversion routes), further works will take place to access the pipe that goes under the road. This will mean a road closure. I'll provide an update as soon as I have further information.
UPDATE 9 February 2024
The current works permit has been extended until 11 February to complete the footway works. A road closure is still required to safely complete the soakaway connection at the junction with Welcomes Road. Conway will request for an early start so that this essential work can commence within a month of submitting a permit application and will require approx. 5 days to be completed.
You can check out the works at https://one.network/public.
UPDATE: 5th February 2024
The Highways drainage team have tried to eliminate the road closure, however it is now likely that the contractor will need to complete a road closure to access a pipe across the middle of the road. This road closure will be done during another phase of works (as the contractor will need to make the appropriate applications). The highways drainage team are working to get a construction date from the contractor. Once a date is fixed, the highways drainage team will keep us updated and are also planning to distribute a letter to affected residents and businesses well in advance.
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Last year Welcomes Road and part of Kenley Lane were closed for around a month for flood relief works. This project was to construct a water storage area for all the surface water that flows into the dip where Welcomes Road meets Kenley Lane and Valley Road.
Whilst the works that took place at the beginning of the year made some impact on the ongoing flooding of this area, it certainly didn’t stop the floods. Further investigations indicated that there were hydraulic issues with the pipes works which causes rainwater to drain slowly and further works have been scheduled to relieve this problem so that the water will drain away to the storage area.
The initial site investigation started on Monday 8 January 2024 and the works are programmed to be completed within 4 weeks or earlier, subject to no unforeseen circumstances or engineering difficulties.
The works are planned to commence fully on Monday 15th January. The plan is to complete the works under temporary traffic lights but there is a section that may require a road closure (no more than 3 days), but this won’t be confirmed until the works commence and further investigations are carried out.
I will update this blog with any further news as the works progress.
