All posts by Robert Sebley

Havant Road A259: we have now resurfaced the former red cycle lanes, this was completed yesterday (18 Nov). We have already received positive feedback about the ride quality of the new lanes, although we have had to follow the old kerb lines which in places have sunk from their original level! Although some of the line painting was able to be done earlier today (for safety reasons we started with repainting the ‘give way’ markings across the side road junctions), we need dry weather to complete this; currently the intention is for the line painting to re-start on Saturday (weather permitting) which will involve painting the cycle lanes themselves. These will now be generally 1.5m wide, up from the original 1.1 – 1.2m; this will serve to visually narrow the road and assist in helping users to observe the 30mph speed limit. The red anti-skid (which will now only be placed in short lengths across junctions and crossings) might have to follow early next year as this requires consistently drier weather. We are now concluding work in the Barn Close area, building the new larger central island which we had to leave until now to assist with the traffic management during the resurfacing operation which took up to half the road width. We expect to broadly finish this by the end of next week. We will then fall back along the whole length of the job, clearing and tidying as we go. Additional road signs will be installed in the new year, linking through to the new route recently opened at Warblington School and so on into Havant.

Emsworth Station: the double deck 24-space cycle parking shelter installation onto the concrete slab we cast in October is expected to be completed by the end of the month. We then need to erect fencing around the shelter and it is expected to be open to the public in early December. When complete there will be a total of 48 stand spaces available at the station, compared with 18 previously. The environmental mitigation works (including a new information / interpretation board) agreed with the Emsworth Waysides Group for the northern site will be installed once the new shelter has been completed. The path to access the station subway on the north side will be widened to 2.5m and converted to ‘shared’ status once the shelter is in place.

Selangor Avenue / Victoria Road / Emsworth Primary School: apart from route confirmation signs along these roads, this scheme is complete.

The following projects are in various stages of design, with implementation planned during 2016.

Emsworth – Rowlands Castle cycle link: this is a new scheme to create a waymarked off road cycle friendly route between Hollybank Lane and Rowlands Castle through Hollybank Woods and Southleigh Forest. The route, which is intended to link National Cycle Network (NCN) route 2 in Emsworth with NCN22 at Rowlands Castle, involves targeted upgrades of existing paths and bridleways, signposting and route marking.

Horndean Road toucan crossing and Recreation Ground links: this is an upgrade to the existing crossing point at St James School. Design continues on this new facility; HCC has now provided the draft toucan layout so we are now able to work up the scheme in detail to link it to the wider network. This will include the signposting of a ‘quiet route’ link between Bellevue Lane and New Brighton Road via Christopher Way and Fairfield Close, providing a connection from the east to the new crossing point, as well as work within the Recreation Ground to widen the east and south side paths to create up to 3m wide shared routes. The scheme is planned to be built in the school summer holiday period in 2016.

Interbridges Link: we have reached agreement in principle with the relevant parties to implement proposals for a new east-west link between Washington Road and New Brighton Road, using land between the railway and the A27. This link will connect both into the new Station cycle parking area and the Interbridges junction, and by converting the verge on the east side of New Brighton Road (north of the Horndean Road junction) to shared status we will have achieved a quiet / off road route between Westbourne and Emsworth. Following a review of contractual arrangements and efficiency of delivery, it has been decided that this work is best done at the same time, and within the same contract, as the other work in the Recreation Ground and with the toucan crossing (i.e. summer holiday period 2016).

Havant’s Engineering Works Team are carrying out further work in North Street (currently outside Tesco), widening and improving the crossing points at the two junctions with Palmers Road. The remainder of the proposed works have been paused in case anything that comes out of the North Street Urban Design Consultation being run by Emsworth Forum conflicts with what we had planned to do.

Other Emsworth projects, including comprehensive and consistent waymarking of all the new routes through the network, will progress throughout the next year.