Work is currently underway to progress the single lane re-opening of the A29 at Pulborough as a temporary route. Last week the County Council’s highway contractors cleared vegetation, including cutting back branches and limbs of trees which were overhanging the highway. This was necessary to facilitate the installation of the concrete blocks required to partially re-open the road.
This week, contractors have installed the concrete blocks on both sides of the highway along the affected area of Church Hill. There will be approximately 50 metres of interlinking blocks which will form a robust, protected single lane carriageway down the centre of the road, with the last of these being installed today, Friday 14 April.
On Monday, WSCC contractors will install 100mm of surfacing to provide additional support to the positioning of the blocks, which will allow the road to be re-opened on Tuesday 18 April by 11am, once the morning’s peak traffic has subsided.
All vehicular traffic will be permitted to travel in both directions along Church Hill, with traffic signals controlling the direction of the flow. The traffic signals will be manned throughout the day, particularly at peak hours, to minimise queuing traffic. We will monitor the situation on a daily basis and adjust the operational hours of the manual control accordingly.
Due to the placement of the concrete blocks, pedestrians are not able to travel via Church Hill and must continue to use the alternative routes signposted.
A number of options were considered for the single lane solution with the decision being made that the safest option would be to allow two-way traffic flow based on risk assessments and advice received from traffic management specialists. We are aware that the two-way option will result in traffic queuing at either end, however we feel that the additional manual control of the traffic signals at peak hours will minimise the disruption these queues may cause.
There will be continued monitoring of the embankments to ensure that the road can remain open safely and the county council will continue to work towards a longer term solution for the location.
