A 3-week closure of the main road through Newchurch will come into force this morning (Monday) bringing about disruption for motorists near the height of the Summer season.
Island Roads, on behalf of the Isle of Wight Council, are closing Langbridge and The Shute at one of the busiest times of the year to enable footway accessibility improvement works to be completed. In short, work is being undertaken to allow access to a new pedestrian bridge that has been installed.
The route through Newchurch and Winford is popular with local drivers trying to avoid The Bay area, as well tourists visiting attractions such as The Garlic Farm. So the closure will be felt hard, especially for those travelling from Ryde towards the South Wight – and visa versa.
The road will now be closed both night and day for approximately the next 3 weeks.
As previously reported by Island Echo, new 12.5m footbridge has been put in place in Newchurch to provide safe pedestrian access through the village, funded by Newchurch Parish Council. It means walkers will no longer have to navigate the narrow and busy stretch of road over the stone bridge.
Island Echo readers commented earlier this month how the bridge did not appear to be accessible to all users with a step up onto a concrete block. Now, work is being undertaken to create an access point to the bridge and to ensure it meets modern standards.
Councillor Phil Jordan, Cabinet member for transport and infrastructure, has said:
“We are doing all we can to assist the parish council in providing a safe means of pedestrian access for users of their newly-installed footbridge.
Article continues below this advertisement “Island Roads will be doing all they can to expedite the works but we cannot build the footway and keep the road open at the same time for health and safety reasons.
“We recognise that these improvement works may cause some inconvenience for residents and businesses, but we hope any disruption will be offset by the long-term benefits we are making on behalf of the parish council.”
Surely it would of made more sense to have waited until the school had closed in a week and a half. Oh no Island roads, silly me!
As I understand it, the kids can still get to school.
They can still get to school, but any parents coming from the Ryde area now having to do a detour and it doubles the traffic from the Arreton side at drop off and pick up times. In 2 weeks time this wouldn’t of been an issue.
Why not park your car on the Ryde side of the works road closure and walk the last 500 metres. I’m sure it would take a lot less time and petrol and you all gets a bit of fresh air and exercise. Or do you have to drive right up to the school gates?
Proving that common sense no longer matters to obtain high positions of authority in Council jobs now, all about who you know which matters..
For if such existed, then this no doubt improvement would have been held over till after the busiest time of year for motorists and holiday travel.
Inept Council strikes again.
Pathetic, could easily have be left until the winter months. The whole idea is flawed anyway there are no foot-ways to the north of the bridge on either side which is far more hazardous than walking over the bridge which can only accommodate one way traffic.
Nice calm road today………. No huge trucks and cars hurtling through the 20mph zone at the rate of knots. Perhaps the council can look at getting traffic to slow down through the village when the bridge is finally opened.