Swanley Village road works

Early August (next week) will see road closures affecting Swanley Village. However, the details of how these will operate have changed (and for the better).

Thames Water is undertaking works that require a closure in Highlands Hill (original proposed dates 2-5 August). 

 

At around the same time, Network Rail are closing Beechenlea Lane for the first stage of major works to replace the bridge over the railway line. Much of the work is scheduled for later in the year, but with the aim of getting as much done during the school holidays as possible, the first closure will be on 2-3 August. 

 

It is clearly undesirable to have simultaneous closures, but the need to make progress (and, in the case of Thames Water, to carry out the works in full) during the school holidays, coupled with a lack of other available time slots for Thames Water to get their works done, has resulted in this clash. This, coupled with the closure of Beechenlea Lane, has meant that, while the recommended diversion route for the Network Rail route has been Button Street, that for the Thames Water works on Highlands Hill starts with School Lane, also undesirable on account of its narrowness. Nonetheless, this gives one diversion route at each end of Swanley Village Road.

 

To mitigate this problem, Kent Highways have secured agreement from Thames Water that they postpone the start of their works by one day until 3 August, cutting the overlap of the two sets of works to just one day. In addition, Button Street (then London Road, High Street, Swanley Lane) will be used as the diversion route, ending any need to use School Lane.