East Hill Road - latest on works

Over the last couple of weeks I have had contact from residents and District Councillors regarding proposed works in East Hill Road and how access would be managed during the closure. (Declaring an interest : I am a resident). What follows is a slightly complicated story, but here is the latest position.

With regard to the highways-related closure of East Hill Road, this was originally scheduled to take place on 14-18 June (ie starting next Monday) between 7PM and 1AM each night. The closure is part of the KCC ‘pothole blitz’, although in this case that is something of a misnomer, since these are quite large-scale surface improvements (as are very much needed in the road). 

The contractor is required to seek to ensure that residents have access to their properties during the closure, though exactly how this will work in practice will depend on the state of the works, time taken to move plant and the like. There are inevitably difficulties with carrying out full width works on a No Through Road which nonetheless serves quite a large number of properties, but the plan seeks to minimise them. Emergency services are made aware of the works and will of course be given priority if they need to access the road. 

On 1 June, some residents were notified of an impending emergency closure, also of East Hill Road, by South East Water to repair a water leak (again, clearly needed to address a very evident problem in the road). Kent Highways took this up and it was agreed that the works would be postponed until the following week (week commencing 7 June, ie the week just ending) and then for the works to take place on a Sunday. 

Initially it appeared that the proposed date was this coming Sunday, 13 June, but it is now understood that South East Water propose to carry this out on the following Sunday, the 20th. These would be a temporary restoration, with permanent works taking place a week later. As with the pothole blitz works, every effort will be made to preserve access for residents, and with priority for emergency services. 

However, this means that the Kent Highways works will now have to be postponed, since the south-east water improvements clearly need to take place first. A new date will be set, but with the works to take place with the various measures to maintain the greatest possible access as before.

I will update further as soon as I know more.