Repairs to busy Royston street could cause traffic chaos
North Herts District Council's offices in Letchworth GC - Credit: Archant
Repairs to a main Royston street could cause traffic chaos according to a councillor.
A large dip appeared in Old North Road, Royston, near the junction with Gower Road, during the winter.
As reported in The Crow earlier this year, residents have voiced concerns that it could lead to a dangerous ‘sink hole’ appearing in the road surface.
Members of North Herts District Council’s Royston area committee discussed the state of Old North Road at their meeting on Wednesday.
Cllr Fiona Hill, chair of the committee, said: “The situation is being monitored. Highways have carried out an investigation because our initial concern was that the whole road could suddenly collapse. I think all the councillors get comments about it from people because it’s so obvious.
“Their investigation didn’t show that that was likely to happen, but we have asked for work to be carried out to repair Old North Road.
“If work is carried out it will require a road closure and they have to apply for that.”
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“Must we simply wait for the road to collapse before anything is done? Its an extremely large area, and the road is very busy.”
District councillor Peter Burt said: “My concern would be that if any work had to be done it would involve closing the road, and that would cause chaos with traffic.
“The right thing is happening at the moment that it’s being monitored, but my worry is that what seems to be a simple problem could actually be a much bigger one.”
Highways repairs are carried out by Ringway, a contractor that works on behalf of Hertfordshire County Council.
Jerry Pert, Ringway regional director, working on behalf of Hertfordshire County Council said “We have been monitoring the depression on Old North Road whilst considering the best course of action to stabilise and repair the area. It is planned to excavate the area of affected road surface and replace with new asphalt; however this may change depending on what is discovered during the process. The work will require a full road closure, however access will be maintained where possible for residents. A schedule for the works will be released when timescales are confirmed.”
