Drivers on the Isle of Wight are being warned of long-running disruption on a main road into Sandown, with temporary lights set to remain in place for over 2 months.
From 30th March, there will be 2-way traffic lights on Newport Road between the junctions with Scotchells Brook Lane and Alverstone Road.
The works will see engineers replace old pipes with new plastic ones, reducing the risk of leaks and bursts in the future.
Southern Water have confirmed that more than 770m of pipework is being replaced.
A spokesperson at Southern Water said:
“Our engineering teams will start work on Monday 31st March and are scheduled to complete by early June 2026.
“To make sure that the work is carried out safely, we’ll have two-way traffic lights on Newport Road between the junctions of Ventnor Road, Alverstone Road and Scotchells Brook Lane.
“We’re sorry for the inconvenience this will cause residents and commuters, and thank everyone for their patience and understanding.”
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So that is Easter fcuked, what ever happened to
Highways planning road works!, obviously doesn’t
seem to happen thesedays.
It’s annoying, course it is, but it’s planned work to stop leaks and bigger problems later. You can’t expect roads to stay perfect without any disruption at all.
True.
but it is reasonable to expect basic consideration for road users and the common sense to avoid a major holiday. It’s not like they’ll be working over the bank holiday so this just extends the pain.
Perhaps our highways department would care to explain why they have failed to pay even basic lip service to their statutory obligation to minimise disruption?
I get what you’re saying, but there’s no perfect time to do works like this. Avoid one period and you hit another, school runs, summer traffic, events, whatever.
The reality is it’s a long job replacing 770m of pipe, not something you can just squeeze around a couple of bank holidays without dragging it out even longer.
Is there an Highways department on the island!
If there is, they have no idea.
Here we go again.
so why is it,.. that for this,.. the traffic can be two-way with traffic lights,
when for the same job (replacing water main), on both Eleanor’s Grove, and Horsebridge Hill, they refused to have two-way lights, and insisted on ridiculous one-way diverson insteaad ??
The island is 2 Tier.
How about fixing these traffic lights at lake. into week 3/4 now. waiting on a specialist part. Funny same excuse used at the arretton lights. is it the same part that was needed in arretton? Strange how they were fixed when the lake lights went down. i ve had things made in China and received them quicker than this part is taking to arrive. Why and where did you buy these extremely high-tech lights from. Still you will be earning well from light and sign hiring. Just saying.
Surely they will finish the work on the road through Alverstone first to give an alternative to using Newport Road? Come on joined up thinking required……….