Southern Water engineers are working to repair yet another burst pressurised sewer at Yaverland, but it may be several weeks until the situation is resolved bringing about significant travel disruption for motorists.
It comes almost exactly 6 months after a similar problem caused disruption back in January, as previously reported by Island Echo. In that instance, 2-way traffic lights were temporarily introduced on Yaverland Road while sewage tankers dealt with the problem.
Now, however, there are 3-way traffic lights further along towards the roundabout junction with Marshcombe Shute and Sandown Road, causing additional congestion just as the tourist season takes off.
Tankers are being used to remove sewage from the area and away to the processing plant at Sandown.
A spokesperson for Southern Water has told Island Echo:
“We’re currently dealing with a burst pressurised sewer near Yaverland Road near Sandown.
“Residents may notice a number of tankers in the area, and there is also traffic management in place at Yaverland Road (B3395) – this will remain in place until a full repair is carried out, which may take a few weeks.”
“We are mitigating the environmental impact of the burst and will carry out a full repair later this month which will require a significant number of tankers being deployed.
We’re sorry for the impact this is having and any disruption it is causing residents and businesses.”Article continues below this advertisement
Good grief, there are only about five houses in Yaverland.
That Manor owner must eat like a horse if it needs a fleet of tankers to clear the sewage.
He made his fortune from GM crops, likely it give the two bob bits it would seem.
They should be working 24/7.
The tankers are working 24/7 to keep the sewage moving to the treatment plant
Here we go if it not old farts going 10mph it’s this
Why are all kevs in here so annoying maybe you should give it a rest
Another case of the system not coping with demand, Sandown water treatment works is the only one serving the entire Island and clearly cannot cope, hence the outflows to the sea and neither does the Victorian infrastructure which supplies it!
Obviously the last works done there recently were a bodge up.
Is this the same place where sewage lorries were taking away waste 24 hrs a day earlier in the year opposite Sandown Manor? Temporary traffic lights caused long tailbacks and the road was getting blocked with buses and coaches who couldn’t pass due to the road being too narrow. More chaos ):
That was because Morton Road was closed for flooding, meaning everyone was diverting via Yaverland. Also, buses are diverting this time to avoid the works.
That’s right. Back in the winter. Beggars belief why the problem wasn’t fixed then!!!! The buses won’t have to ‘divert’ this time Luke, they will stick to their main route which is New Road through Brading in both directions.
I was wondering if this pipework was similar to the Ryde one that failed. Was the Island network designed to take into account all the flow increase that all the new housing has and will create?
Gosh I’m sure no one even thought about that. Said no one.
Perhaps if Southern Water had replaced the entire unit six months ago instead of just patching it up to minimal working standard, this new fault could have been avoided.
Last time, there were real problems because the roads aren’t wide enough to carry passing double decker buses, plant machinery & heavy traffic all at once.
God help anyone in the area who needs Emergency Services for the duration.
Southern Water should be legally compelled to replace inadequate infrastructure & not just do a bodge job with a temporary fix IMO
This comment brings me nicely on to this. Don’t know if anybody has noticed but a lot of the island roads are narrow and not made for the heavy traffic we see today. The giant supermarket lorries, heavy building trucks, not to mention the mega 4x4s everybody seems to have these days. The majority of island roads are not built for this sort of traffic, width wise and weight wise, plus nobody seems to repair anything properly today, would eat into profits, cant have that can we?
And the solution. I HAVE NO IDEA.
It’s a 6ft 6in restricted road anyway so HGVs et should not be passing the works anyway. Last time, there was an issue there because motorists were using that as a diversion while Morton Road was closed due to flooding.
Maybe if you know best, you should get a job at Southern Water and tell them how to do it?!
Large scale housing developments are given the go-ahead as we are told ‘Island families need more houses’ and the developments are ‘nitrate neutral’ as the sewage is pumped to Sandown. Island families actually need affordable houses based on Island wages and our existing sewage system pumps into the sea every time it rains. IOW Council and the Planning Department should be saying ‘no’ to large scale developments unless they are genuinely affordable and more investment is made in our existing antiquated sewage system
why are the tankers loading up on the road again instead of being required to load up in the field?
That way they’d only cause minor disruption for a minute or so per hour instead of chaos 24/7.
Why not just dump.it straight in the sea as usual? Like Southern Water care. What a joke. They say, taking it to sandown for processing. Total nonsense, they’ve been pumping it into the sea directly for months and years now.