There was an update meeting this evening for the Guided Bus project. The main cause of delays in the Southern section (Station - Addenbrookes - Trumpington Park and Ride) remains the gas main in the Trumpington cutting, where getting agreement with the gas company over what (if anything) needs to be done to protect the gas main has proved tricky.
The rest of the southern section is now progressing, and is expected to be completed around the end of January/February next year. There is some possibility that the route from the station to Addenbrookes can open prior to the Trumpington cutting work being completed (which could be Feb/March time).
All dates are still provisional, but the really exciting news is that they on the final phase of Hills Road bridge work - reinstating the road as it was - and it could be fully re-opened without any traffic management by the end of this week. Fingers crossed...
2 comments:
What an utter shame that the change to 5 lane operation (3 general traffic lanes and 2 cycle lanes) couldn't have been sorted out in time for reinstatement, avoiding a second round of works. I presume this is because there are lots of other changes relating to access to the station about to happen.
Quite agree - it is ridiculous. If the trial does result in any group of road users appearing to be disadvantaged even it is just a matter of perception or a temporary effect, then allowing the existing layout to have been reinstated for a few weeks prior to the trial will have been a disaster.
I did chase this through email a fair bit, and the ultimate response I got was: "The trial involves a temporary traffic management layout on the original road layout. Nuttall are therefore re-instating the layout to the original." at which point I gave up in despair.
At the last but one Southern liaison meeting, I raised the point that often in the City the standard of reinstatement work by some contractors working on the road leaves a lot to be desired (the plastercine ski-jump effect), so can we be reassured that the Hills Road reinstatement will be a permanent and high quality repair. There followed some ridiculously defensive stuff from Nuttalls that resulted in the whole discussion being minuted as follows: "PP questioned whether the professionalism of BNL, as a blue chip company was under question. CH and JC confirmed it was not." You really couldn't make some of this stuff up.
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