Road resurfacing work across the Isle of Wight is to be suspended next month until the Spring as the wet and cold weather moves in.
Island Roads have today (Thursday) confirmed that the resurfacing works, carried out under the Highways PFI contract, will be halted until March 2015 to minimise the impact on residents who have been frustrated over works taking longer than planned during the winter months.
Instead, the schedule of work will concentrate, in the main, on aspects of the Highways PFI contract that are less likely to be interrupted by the winter weather including the installation of street lighting, improvement to traffic signage and signals and increased activity to upgrade footways. There will also be work to improve drainage on the highway network such as the major scheme to begin shortly on Pallance Road Northwood which is prone to flooding in high rainfall and the major geotechnical scheme at Duver Road, Seaview.
Crews will continue to work into December as far as the weather conditions allow.
The news follows an intensive recent period of resurfacing during which four crews have been resurfacing across the Island around the clock, although Island Echo understands night time surfacing has not been carried out for several weeks.
Over the past couple of weeks, residents have reported that crews have returned to roads that have only been recently resurfaced to carry out yet more resurfacing, including Deacons Lane in Ryde and New Road, Newport to name just two.
Responding to Island Echo’s enquiry as to why resurfacing crews have revisited roads so quickly, Paul Herbert, Island Roads, Service Director said:
“It is perfectly normal practice that in undertaking re-surfacing works of this nature, there is occasionally a requirement to carry out remedial works, caused for a variety of reasons but predominantly through adverse weather conditions impacting the finished quality of our works.
Article continues below this advertisement “Any remedial work carried out by Island Roads is done so at our own expense. To put this small amount of remedial work required on the Island into context, since April 2013 Island Roads has resurfaced the equivalent of a seven-metre wide highway that would stretch one and a quarter times around the Island.”
Island Roads say if there is the prospect of an unseasonably mild and dry period of weather then highway resurfacing may resume for that period.
