City of York Council will be undertaking highway drainage cleaning and survey work from Monday 1 March for approximately five weeks.
This work forms part of planned highway maintenance improvement works programme on Tadcaster Road from Blossom Street to the junction with the A64.
The works will take place in several phases with the aim being to cause minimal disruption to road users.
The table below shows the areas that will be covered in the first five weeks.
Phase
Location
Week
1
Copmanthorpe to A64 Junction Start 3pm – Finish 11pm
1
2
A64 Junction Start 7pm – Finish 7am
1
3
A64 to Park and Ride Start 7pm – Finish 7am
2
4
Sim Balk Lane Junction Start 7pm – Finish 7am
3
5
Sim Balk Lane to Askham Bar Roundabout Start 3pm – Finish 11pm
3
6
Askham Bar Roundabout Start 6pm – Finish 11pm
4 & 5
In March the council will discuss and agree a plan for work to be undertaken on the section from the Askham Bar roundabout to Nunnery Lane.
The works will consist of cleaning using high-pressure water machines and survey works using remote control CCTV cameras. The works will be largely non-intrusive and will not involve any road or footpath excavation. There is however the potential for some minor disruption for road users and local residents. The council has therefore been working closely with its supply chain partners to ensure that any works requiring traffic management (such as lane closures) operate in a way that causes minimum disruption.
Footpath resurfacing work at Woodthorpe Green got underway on 15 February. The badly-rutted path that links Summerfield Road and Glenridding is being reconstructed.
The work is being funded by the ward budget and is part of a wider package of investment in measures to promote walking and cycling.
The work has however had an impact on access to the playground. It is unfortunate that the work has coincided with half-term, when the playground would be particularly busy. Local councillors are usually informed in advance of carriageway work starting so that they can inform residents, but on this occasion that did not happen. If it had, we could have asked about playground access arrangements.
Thankfully, good progress has been made which meant that access to the playground had been restored by lunchtime on Tuesday 16 February.
The winter weather has taken its toll on a number of local roads, where potholes and deteriorating road surfaces present a hazard to all road users.
Local councillors are lobbying the council’s Highways team to fill in the multiple potholes that have appeared on Alness Drive after an initial response stated ‘no action required.’ Some potholes have since been marked for repair, but others have not.
Alness Drive potholes
It is a similar story on Moor Lane between Cairnborrow and Eden Close, where there has been a dramatic deterioration in the road surface over recent months. As well as potholes, large sections of the highway previously ‘surface dressed’ have crumbled, leading to a thick layer of debris accumulating by the kerbside. This poses a particular hazard for cyclists.
Moor Lane potholes and crumbling road surfaces
Councillors will continue to undertake regular inspections of roads and footpaths and report repairs where they are needed. We would encourage residents to notify us of any we may have missed.
City of York Council has set out a timetable for work to invest £5m on Tadcaster Road, following the award of the funding from the Department of Transport’s Local Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund.
The funding will enable to council to improve large sections of drainage along the route which will reduce localised surface water flooding. The work will include the delivery of additional pedestrian crossings and will ensure the road is maintenance free for the next 10 years.
Road works are returning to Tadcaster Road
Local councillors have for some time been pressing for a pedestrian refuge to be installed on Tadcaster Road near to the junction with Nelsons Lane to enable residents alighting the bus to be able to cross the road safely. It is hoped that this scheme will now be delivered as part of these works.
During the council’s liaison with the major utility companies to co-ordinate future work, it became apparent that Northern Gas Networks (NGN), were due to carry out major work in 2023. They have brought this work forward to October 2020 to ensure that disruption for residents and commuters is minimised. The council works are then scheduled to start in January 2021.
The council could have made NGN wait for three years before digging up the road, but that would have led to longer term issues of the road surface once again becoming a ‘patchwork’ of reinstatements. By bringing the NGN work forward, there is the opportunity to undertake proper reinstatement as part of the wider package of work.
The council has published some FAQs, set out below, which address questions and concerns that residents may have, such as why the NGN work is being done so soon after a section of Tadcaster Road was resurfaced.
Q. Wasn’t part of Tadcaster Road resurfaced earlier this year? A. Yes. The council bid to Government for a scheme on Tadcaster Road but received confirmation in March that it was unsuccessful and would not receive funding. Therefore the council resurfaced a section of Tadcaster Road as it was in need of urgent repairs between The Horseshoe and St Aubyns Place.
However, in June the council was then awarded the £5million funding to improve large sections of drainage along Tadcaster Road which will reduce the risk of localised surface water flooding.
Northern Gas Networks recently informed the council they have plans to carry out major works to their service at Tadcaster Road by 2025. The council was not made aware of these works before the section of Tadcaster Road between The Horseshoe and St Aubyns Place was resurfaced earlier this year.
Whilst it is not an ideal situation, the council would rather sacrifice a small part of the works that have been undertaken already rather than risk the digging up of the major £5 million scheme in a few years’ time for the Northern Gas Networks scheme.
The council and Northern Gas Networks have agreed to coordinate their programmes of works for the benefit of the larger Tadcaster Road scheme.
This coordination of works will see Northern Gas Networks advance their programme for delivery in 2020. The utility repair works will be carried out on the inbound carriageway only from 10 October for 16-20 weeks. As these works will affect 50% the recently surfaced road, the council will resurface this affected section again by recycling the material onsite. The council is planning to commence the drainage works in January 2021 followed by highways works and road resurfacing, these works are expected to take up to 9 months to complete.
Full details will be communicated in advance of the works, including letters to residents and businesses.
Pedestrian access will be permitted and maintained at all times, but vehicle access may be prohibited at times with traffic management (traffic lights). Everything possible will be done to keep this distribution to a minimum.
Q. Where are the works happening? A. The current scope of the £5m Highways maintenance works includes the full stretch of Tadcaster Road.
A full assessment of the road’s condition will be carried out in advance. This will help to determine the full details of the works including in addition to the resurfacing and drainage works, is if there is capacity to look at additional crossing points as well as improvements to the crossing points, footway or cycle routes, for example.
Q. Why are we doing it? A. There are serious defects we could not address without the significant level of funding from DFT, these include the road surface and drainage network, so this scheme will improve the quality of the overall highway. There are currently 35 non-running gullies and several hundred metres of un-mapped drainage, meaning this route particularly suffers during times of heavy rain and localised surface water flooding. The proposed scheme would deliver remediation measures to the road’s drainage, ensure its resurfacing is fit-for-purpose and can continue to meet the needs of its cycling users and support the local economy and the wider area.
Q. What is the impact on traffic during the works? A. A traffic management plan will be created in advance, alongside NGN, and communicated to residents and businesses. These works will be delivered under lane closures and traffic lights, which will be monitored closely on site by traffic marshals. Journey times may be affected, however we will be doing everything we can to keep this to a minimum.
Q. What will happen to public transport and buses? A. Residents and visitors are urged to plan ahead, allow more time for journeys on these routes which will be busier than normal and to consider alternatives and to use public transport where possible. Bus services will generally be operating as normal for the majority of the works, as per national social distancing rules.
Q. Will I still be able to cross the road? A. Temporary crossing points will be available at all times during the works to ensure that all pedestrian crossings that are currently available are maintained. Traffic marshals will be on site to assist with pedestrians crossing the road.
Q. Will I still be able to access shops, cafe/restaurants in the area? A. Pedestrian access will be maintained at all times. We will be engaging with traders and businesses in the area to help promote the “open as usual” message. Vehicular access for deliveries will be maintained.
Q. What if I live or work in the area? A. Access to all properties and businesses will be retained at all times. Traffic marshals will be on hand to assist if vehicle access is prohibited at certain times.
Q. What about alternative travel plans? A. Residents and visitors are urged to plan ahead, allow more time for journeys on these routes and to consider alternatives and to use public transport where possible. Bus services will generally be operating as normal for the majority of the works but passengers are requested to visit www.itravelyork.info for more information.
The installation of Ultra Fibre Optic cabling in the Acomb Park area has returned, with work being undertaken on streets that were missed out when the first tranche of work was done.
Cable is currently being installed on Coeside, but it seems that the company has failed to give residents advance notice. One resident contacted Cllr Stephen Fenton after returning home to find their driveway blocked and the ‘service strip’ part of the front garden dug up.
In mid-September Stephen contacted the council’s Streetworks team to ask about similar work being undertaken on nearby Ashmeade Close, and he requested a list of the streets in Dringhouses & Woodthorpe ward where permissions had been granted for forthcoming utilities work. A council officer undertook to ask the company’s senior build manager in York to provide some information, but to date none has been received.
It is understood that utility firms are required to notify the council of forthcoming works at least 10 days in advance.
Stephen commented “It’s not acceptable for residents to find their driveway blocked and their front garden dug up with no notice or explanation. If the utility company doesn’t have the courtesy to tell residents what they are doing, and the council can’t compel them to, then it’s even more more important that ward councillors are kept informed.
“I have therefore asked that, when the council’s Streetworks team receives notification of utility works, this is communicated to ward councillors so that we have the opportunity to put out a street letter explaining what’s going on.”
On 30 June it was announced that City of York Council has been awarded £5million by the Department for Transport to carry out repairs on Tadcaster Road, following a successful bid to the Government’s Transport Challenge Fund 2020.
Cllr Paula Widdowson at a newly-resurfaced stretch of Tadcaster Road
The additional funding will be used to carry out wholesale maintenance on Tadcaster Road, including road repairs and drainage, in order to complement works the Council has carried out in recent years such as the replacement of ageing traffic lights, better cycling measures, junction improvements and resurfacing works.
Cllr Keith Aspden, Leader of the Council, commented:
“We are pleased to be awarded £5million by the Department for Transport to carry out much-needed road improvements along Tadcaster Road. This is a key route into York, not only used for local journeys, but by millions of visitors and commuters every year. The wholesale maintenance works will help to improve traffic flow and ensure the city’s local road network is safe and more reliable for all residents”
Cllr Stephen Fenton, Lib Dem Councillor for Dringhouses and Woodthorpe, said:
“I welcome this additional funding which will enable further works on this crucial route in the city. The council has just invested over £600k in resurfacing of a large section of Tadcaster Road, and this new funding will open up opportunities to make further improvements. Whether using our Park & Ride to access the city centre, visiting York Racecourse or just cycling into town; Tadcaster Road is a pivotal route and this investment couldn’t come soon enough.”
Local councillors have thanked City of York Council and contractors for the smooth running of the resurfacing works along Tadcaster Road.
The works are now complete and reinstatement of road markings are nearing completion. Cycle lanes have been widened to the standard 1.5 metre width along some sections of the road and the previous very narrow ‘filter box’ for vehicles and cycles turning right onto Nelsons Lane has been removed.
The presence of pedestrian refuges acted as a constraint in enabling more sections of cycle lane to be widened, which has led to calls for their replacement with zebra crossings to provide better facilities for pedestrians, slow traffic down and remove pinch points along the road for cycling.
The whole corridor from the Askham Bar Park & Ride site to Micklegate Bar is in need of a review to identify and tackle issues and obstacles that make people less likely to cycle along this route.
The good weather has allowed the crews to make good progress with the resurfacing work on Tadcaster Road.
Tadcaster Road
We await proposals from council officers about how they plan to take the opportunity to improve safety for cyclists when the road markings are reinstated.
Some much-needed large patching has also been done on Hob Moor Terrace.
The warm and dry weather has enabled the resurfacing work on Tadcaster Road to get off to a good start.
In response to requests from ward councillors, a member of the council’s Highways team has confirmed that work will be undertaken to try to resolve long-standing issues at two specific junctions on Tadcaster Road (Calcaria Court and Middlethorpe Drive).
The ponding at Calcaria Court was due to dipped and uneven channels which will be relaid, and tree roots have been cut out which were blocking a gulley.
At the junction with Middlethorpe Drive there is blocked highway pipework which had built up over many years due to tree roots in a sewer downstream. Following a site meeting earlier this week, Yorkshire Water has undertaken to fix the problem with the sewer.
Along the full length of the roadworks the council will fully jet and CCTV all of the drains .
When road markings are reinstated following the completion of the works, we would like to see the opportunity taken to make this key route safer and more attractive for cycling.
