Updates on A562 Warrington Road Works
Further remedial works to be completed.
After being contacted by a few residents and seeing some of the Social Media feedback online about the recent Road Works through Penketh, I contacted the Highways Maintenance Principal Engineer.
Some debris, signs and cones had been left behind, as well as some unfortunate anti-social behaviour, with two cones thrown into Penketh Brook. The signs have now been collected on Tuesday following the re-cutting of the traffic sensor loops for the Pedestrian crossing signals. The contractors will also be removing the abandoned cones but might need specialist equipment to retrieve. I have asked that the Central reservation is swept too to remove works debris.
The Sunken Inspection Chamber highlighted by residents in lane two, adjacent to Greystone, is low on one side and the contractor is aware of this and will be back on site in the new year to attend to it.
Drop Crossing issues identified by residents have been picked up by the Contractors, who were already unhappy with the outcome of the two at the bottom of Coronation Drive and Birkdale. This is caused by existing Utility Chambers and the Highways team will be working with them in the New Year to find a better solution.
Utility grid causing the issue to levels.
Further to this, the highways team clarified why these works had to be done on Warrington road with the following statement; "Independent annual surveys are carried out on Warrington’s A, B & C road network, along with 50% of the unclassified roads annually too (so every two years we have a full picture of the condition of the road). These surveys, backed up with engineering assessment, help to define our programme for each year. If we are able to ‘catch’ the road before it deteriorates too far then it is possible to replace just the surface course, rather than the foundation layers which becomes a lot more expensive to do and takes much longer. The road surface on Warrington Road was starting the deteriorate significantly with rutting and polishing longitudinally in the wheel tracks. There was also a risk that the road would have soon become potholed, which is caused by water getting into the surface through cracks, and when it freezes the water expands and then the surface breaks away to form the hole. Along with this there was an issue with some of the carriageway ironwork with the road breaking up around them or polishing of the covers which is a hazard especially when wet or icy.
Damaged carriageway ironwork, with polishing and tarmac break up.
Of course to you only see these defects when you study the road or footway surface. The Council’s highways inspectors have intervention levels for dealing with defects on roads and footways and until somethings are a certain size or depth there is little action they can take, www.warrington.gov.uk/potholes-or-damage-roads-pavements-or-footways gives more information on this"
The highways team confirmed that this work is completed via Capital Budgets awarded by Central Government. They also confirmed the following "Funding for major road repairs, resurfacing and improvements such as new controlled pedestrian crossings comes from other taxation to the government and Warrington Borough Council do not decide how much ‘we’ get, but that funding is ringfenced for the public highways and cannot be used for other things, When we carry out major resurfacing schemes we try to carry out minor improvements, like the drop crossings, alongside the main works as we have the resources in place (traffic management, workers, machinery etc.) to deal with them all in one go rather than piecemeal as might ordinarily be the case"
Overall, I think its looking great and is a vast improvement, particularly at the bottom of Greystone which has significant rutting which was a safety risk. For any other local road issues you can report to WBC via the following link https://www.warrington.gov.uk/potholes-or-damage-roads-pavements-or-footpaths. I'll be happy to support you if you have any issues with it.
Thanks for your patience in this matter.
Cllr Michael Potts - Penketh Parish
