Island Roads are beginning work today (Wednesday) to rebuild a section of Alum Bay New Road in the West Wight, following significant damage to the highway and adjacent land in the recent storms.
Heavy rain and winds on already saturated ground had caused a substantial section of the highway and land beneath and adjacent to it, to collapse and slip away from the road over the festive period. This left Island Roads with no option but to reduce the section of carriageway to one lane whilst investigations took place.
Decisions about the work have been further complicated by the fact that the highway section is situated adjacent to a site of special scientific interest which meant that environmental and other regulatory procedures had to be followed before work could begin. Those having been completed, work can now start to rebuild and repair the highway with the hope that this should be completed within the next three weeks. The work will involve stabilising the embankment at this location and installing additional drainage.
The majority of works, which commence today, will be carried out using temporary traffic lights, allowing single file traffic access through the road. A road closure will then be required from Monday 27th for a period of up to a week.
Kieron Blamey, Geotechnical Project Engineer, for Island Roads said:
“We recognise that this has been a difficult time for those living and working in the vicinity of this highway collapse and we thank them for their patience whilst we worked through the necessary procedures. These were vitally important as this section of the highway is an environmentally sensitive area and we wanted to be absolutely certain that any works would not impact negatively on the surrounding area. Now that repair work can proceed, we hope to have the road restored for full use as soon as possible.”
