City of York Council will be carrying out road maintenance works on the stretch of Askham Lane just before the A1237 roundabout, starting on Wednesday 2nd June for 2 nights (weather permitting). The works will be carried out between 7.30pm – 5.00am.
In order to carry out the work safely, the use of a full road closure will be necessary whilst works are taking place. A diversion will be in place for traffic.
Emergency services will be permitted through the works in any situation.
From Monday 24 February to Friday 6 March the northbound A1237 will be closed overnight from 8.00pm to 5.30am between Askham Fields Lane and Moor Lane. The closure is due to carriageway investigation works.
From Monday 7th September City of York Council will undertake routine maintenance work on the whole of the A1237 outer ring road.
The work will take place between 8pm – 6am, to minimise disruption to residents any work close to housing will be carried out before 11pm.
The work will include hedge cutting and road gully / channel clearance to help improve visibility, redefine carriageway boundaries and resolve flooding problems.
Work will start at Hopgrove roundabout and progress anti-clockwise along the A1237. The work is scheduled to be completed by Saturday 3 October. Traffic lights will be used when work is taking place to ensure the safety of operatives.
As with any maintenance work on roads, there is likely to be a certain amount of disruption. Residents are assured that everything reasonably possible will be done to keep this to a minimum; however motorists should expect some delays and plan their journey accordingly.
For travel information in and around York visit www.itravelyork.info
The work will aim to reduce the amount of ‘overshoot’ accidents where drivers on Hallcroft Lane may not realise they are approaching a crossroad junction and fail to give way to traffic on Manor Heath. This has lead to a number of serious incidents at the junction.
The work will see the Hallcroft Lane section of the junction widened to allow a pedestrian island to be included. Coloured surfacing will also be used to help road users differentiate between the major and minor roads. Signage in the area will also be improved.
The work is scheduled to take three weeks to complete, with work starting on Monday 7 September. Work will take place Monday to Friday between 8.30am – 4.30pm during the first two weeks. Traffic will be managed by stop/go signals with no alterations to the bus service. This will be carried out by City of York Council.
During the third week whilst resurfacing is taking place a temporary full road closure will be in place on Hallcroft Lane from the Horseman Lane junction to the Manor Heath junction. The road will be closed between 9:15am and 4:15pm. An alternative route for diverted traffic will be signed via Horseman Lane, School Lane, Manor Heath.
Additionally to carry out the surfacing work at the junction of Manor Heath / Hallcroft Lane and Hagg Lane a temporary full road closure will be in place at the junction between 6:00pm and midnight on Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 September. An alternative route for diverted traffic will be signed.
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The Council will again borrow heavily to fund schemes which include:
Borrowing costs click to enlarge
*It seems highly unlikely that this money will be spent in the current financial year as the contract is not now expected to be let until the spring.
The Council will also invest in better play grounds and more solar powered litter bins.
The programme also includes a (mostly unallocated) £15m sum in the “economic investment fund. This is understood still to include major contributions towards a bridge into the York Central site and funding for a Digital Media Centre.
The 5 year rolling programme – which includes projects which are both directly and indirectly funded – does not identify any money for improvements to the northern by pass.
The West Yorkshire “Combined Authority” agreed last November to include a £37.6m scheme in their forward programme fro the project.
Following the announcement by the government of an allocation of £1 billion for the “West Yorkshire Plus Transport fund”, the York Council committed £500,000 a year in its revenue budget to progress the ring road project.
The expectation was that the investment would be used to upgrade those roundabouts – such as the one on the Haxby Road – which currently cause bottlenecks on the A1237.
According to the Combined Authorities programme formal approval for improvements at the first junction was due to be given this month (August) with a start on site in March 2016.
No explanation for the delays has been provided in the report to York Councillors.
The funding must be used by 2021.
Included is a pledge to “grade separate” the Hopgrove A1237/A64 junction. This means that fly-overs will replace the roundabout (which was itself subject to an £9 million upgrade only 5 years ago).
However, those hoping for the A1237 to be dualled will be disappointed and traffic, at busy times, having avoided the Hopgrove bottleneck, will immediately face continuing congestion on the remainder of the A64 trip to the coast.
Hopes for the A1237 seem to rest on the devolved funding made available to the, increasingly aloof, Leeds based “West Yorkshire Combined Authority”.
Reports last week suggested that funding for larger roundabouts is the extent of their ambitions.
No end to Poppleton Bar works
However there is still a considerable amount of work outstanding with periodic impacts on congestion levels in the area.
While the final May deadline for conclusion of the whole Access York contract is long past, it is unclear why there are continuing delays at Poppleton (other than the obvious one that the contractors are simply not fully resourcing their contract obligations).
Cycle tunnel in use but no lane marking on paths
Councillor Ann Reid is now pressing for answers and some have emerged as responses to Freedom of Information requests
One (click to download) confirmed that the whole Access York project – of which the Poppleton works form part – was due to be completed by 23rd May.
Details of the road closure orders have also been published on the Council’s web site
Meanwhile, the permanent traffic signals at the A59 junction with the Park and Ride access road are now in place, but the following work is still outstanding
24 hour lighting on new roundabout
Yesterday (Thursday) the street lights in the area were permanently lit. Taken with the decision to exclude the provision of on-site electricity generation from the project, this does seem to fly in the face of the Councils environmental policies?
Drivers now want a realistic completion date for the project.
We understand that the A1237 diversion, implemented from last night) started at the A19 and involved a 4 mile detour.
One motorist described the situation as chaotic.