St Mary's Street Works - Update

We're now in week three of the major roadworks to completely reconstruct St Mary's Street in Bedford. As I've written on here before, these emergency works are required after a survey showed the road to be in danger of collapsing. This was despite the fact that the road had been resurfaced just four years ago by the former County Council, which sadly failed to put drainage in place. The road is therefore having to be completely rebuilt, with the eight-week project beginning on October 3rd. The works are inevitably causing disruption to people, and we are all anxious for the project to be completed on time and to a high standard, in order that it doesn't have to be dug up again in the foreseeable future. I am pleased to report that the works are going well and despite the gas leak which caused the road to be closed completely for a few hours and stopped the work for a short while, it is on schedule so far. I must add that, while the works are causing some disruption, traffic is moving and you can get in and around Bedford. As always there's lots going on in town, and I encourage people to come and enjoy Bedford town centre

The latest update I have received, at the end of the second week of works, is as follows:

General Progress

During the last week the Contractor has continued to excavate to formation and the majority of the excavation of the southbound lanes is now complete, with sub-base being laid today and tomorrow. The Contractor is carrying out works at the Duck Mill Lane junction consisting of new kerb/drainage blocks and repairs to the dilapidated brick surface water sewer. This work should be completed in the early part of this week, with the first bituminous carriageway layers being laid by the end of the week.

This means that we will be in a position to move traffic onto the southbound carriageway and commence work on the northbound carriageway. Note that once we transfer the traffic across it will be running on a temporary running course with raised ironworks and temporary road markings. Signs will be in place to convey this to the public.

Traffic Management

We are still experiencing some of the issues with people making illegal manoeuvres from Cauldwell Street into Cardington Road and have adjusted the traffic management to try to overcome this as much as possible. The police have been informed and are making regular patrols.

Upcoming Road Closures on Sundays

There are some works which will require a full closure of the road in order to carry out operations safely. Currently 3 full road closures are programmed on Sundays in November (6th, 20th and 27th) to carry out the following:

- works to the Duck Mill Lane Junction

- planing and resurfacing outside the Kings Arms PH and church

- laying the final surface course on St Mary's Street

- installing road markings and traffic loops

These works are weather dependent.