'Roadworks are a necessary evil'published at 15:39 British Summer Time 7 May
15:39 BST 7 May
Peter Sullivan, from Kingswood in Surrey, said he thought people were "all aware that roadworks are a necessary evil".
He added: "The issue here is that councils, utility companies and developers appear to dig up the same stretch of road consecutively instead of working cooperatively and digging it up once."
'Can’t seem to get through' Sittingbourne workspublished at 14:46 British Summer Time 7 May
14:46 BST 7 May
Liz Saul BBC Radio Kent in Sittingbourne
Mary Goodger told reporter Liz Saul in Sittingbourne that roadworks
in the area meant she has “late to work a few times” after being stuck in
congestion.
“I live five minutes from where I work and it has been
taking me half an hour at least to get there most mornings,” she said.
She added: “There’s different sets of miniature roadwork
lights that go up every week. Come out of one turning and they’re there again.
“You just can’t seem to be able to get through them.”
Mark Cullinan runs The Hare & Hounds pub, near the
sinkhole. He told BBC Radio Surrey that his trade is down by at least
40% compared to 2024.
“It’s like Covid all over again. You’re just thinking ‘when
is it going to end?’,” he said.
“I know a lot of the local people are saying it’s quite nice
that some of the traffic doesn’t come through the village, but it doesn’t help
everybody else and it doesn’t help the trade.”
Calls for improved management of roadworkspublished at 13:00 British Summer Time 7 May
13:00 BST 7 May
In April, we reported that Surrey County Council, National
Highways and six utility providers had written to the Department for Transport about
improving the digital service used across England to manage roadworks.
Matt
Furniss, Surrey’s cabinet member for highways, said utility companies' demands
in Surrey were amongst the top five highest in the UK.
He said: “Whilst we
recognise that works on the highway carried out by utility companies are
necessary, these works are all too often impacting negatively on Surrey road
s."
'We are often late to calls'published at 12:44 British Summer Time 7 May
12:44 BST 7 May
Image source, Getty Images
A home care worker from the Guildford area says her service has been hit in the past by roadworks in county.
Jan Mobbs said: "The roadworks have meant that we are often late to calls, which means the clients are not having important medication at the correct time.
"They can become stressed from not having their call at the expected time. This then has a knock on effect for later calls to other clients, which is definitely not the service we like to give."
Ms Mobbs also says new roadworks are "too frequent".
'I struggle to get into work on time'published at 12:29 British Summer Time 7 May
12:29 BST 7 May
A woman says roadworks caused by the Queensway Gateway Road project in East Sussex are making it a struggle for her and her colleagues to reach work every day.
Victoria told BBC Radio Sussex that they have to leave "substantially earlier" each morning due to the project.
"Usually, the time I am hitting there [the road], it is chockablock traffic."
The project in Hastings was originally expected to be completed in 2016.
Family 'angry' at A21 roadworkspublished at 12:12 British Summer Time 7 May
12:12 BST 7 May
A woman says her family is being impacted "quite a lot" by roadworks on the A21 in Hastings.
Tony told BBC Radio Sussex the work was adding half an hour onto the daily school run, which was "eating petrol" and forcing them all to wake up much earlier.
A man who was with her added the family were "stressed" and "angry" about the situation.
The Queensway Gateway Road project in Hastings was originally expected to be completed in 2016.
East Sussex Highways said in April the scheme had made good progress, despite what it called "technical challenges".
A27 works to finish ahead of schedule - agencypublished at 12:05 British Summer Time 7 May
12:05 BST 7 May
Maintenance work on the A27 near Brighton is due to finish ahead of schedule, says National Highways.
The government agency previously said it needed to do drainage, barrier replacement and resurfacing works between the Patcham Interchange and A27 Lewes Road.
"Works have progressed well," it wrote online. "We're now due to finish ahead of the original published date of 6 June."
Impact of roadworks on businessespublished at 11:59 British Summer Time 7 May
11:59 BST 7 May
Image source, George Carden/BBC
Image caption,
Some businesses in Terminus Road, Eastbourne, are calling for roadworks to be paused over the summer
Some businesses in Terminus Road, Eastbourne, are calling for roadworks to be paused over the summer due to fears of their impact they could have on trade.
Works to
pedestrianise the road, with an estimated completion date of December, are
being paid for by a £19.8m grant from the government's Levelling Up Fund.
While
some traders raised concerns about the impact on the town during its busy
summer months, others said works should continue and be completed as quickly as
possible.
Firms charged more to work at certain timespublished at 11:38 British Summer Time 7 May
11:38 BST 7 May
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
East Sussex County Council says contractors and utility companies will be charged more to work on the busiest roads during peak times
East Sussex County Council has announced a scheme to charge more to contractors and utility companies working on the busiest roads during peak times.
The council says its Lane Rental Scheme aims to encourage work to be done outside of peak hours and for those working on the roads to find more efficient ways of finishing the job.
Genuine emergency work that must be carried out during peak times will not be charged under the new scheme for 48 hours from when it begins, the council said.
Why is Godstone High Street still closed?published at 11:22 British Summer Time 7 May
11:22 BST 7 May
Image source, Julia Gregory/BBC
Image caption,
Part of Godstone High Street remains closed
Why not fill the sinkhole in so that cars can drive over it?
Surrey County Council’s infrastructure team manager, Lloyd
Allen, gave reporter Julia Gregory his answer earlier.
He says filling in part of the road to allow traffic to use
it would leave his team unable to reconnect utilities that have been disconnected
for safety reasons, as well as hampering workers’ investigations at the site.
“We still don't know the effects that the water, when the mains
burst, had to the underlying soil conditions,” he added.
‘We don't know what's happening underneath’published at 11:13 British Summer Time 7 May
11:13 BST 7 May
Image source, Julia Gregory/BBC
Image caption,
Lloyd Allen's team at Surrey County Council is still investigating the cause of the Godstone sinkhole
Part of Godstone High Street remains closed after a sinkhole
opened up in February, forcing an evacuation of around 30 nearby homes.
Surrey County Council’s infrastructure team manager, Lloyd
Allen, tells BBC Radio Surrey his team’s investigation of the sinkhole is still
ongoing.
The sinkhole is roughly three metres deep, but is “potentially formed by tunnels under the road”
that could be as deep as 12m, he said.
“The visual appearance of the hole is quite large, but we
don't know what's happening underneath that.”
He says he still cannot commit to a date when the roadworks will be complete.
“If we find a geological problem we have got to fix then that could extend that period of time, so I'm not giving out an end date at the moment,” he says.
Investigations into the cause of the sinkhole are ongoing.
Works continue on M25's busiest sectionpublished at 11:00 British Summer Time 7 May
11:00 BST 7 May
Image source, PA Media
Image caption,
Works on the M25 will aim to cut congestion at junction 10 with the A3
The busiest section of the M25, at junction 10 where the motorway
meets the A3 at Wisley, has been the site of full road closures since March 2024.
National Highways said more than 300,000 vehicles travelled through the junction every
day and the £317m project will add extra lanes to improve safety and cut
congestion.
Big projects to look out forpublished at 10:52 British Summer Time 7 May
10:52 BST 7 May
Image caption,
Roadworks in towns across the South East could impact on residents
There are some large roadworks coming to towns across the South East which may impact on residents.
Essential gas works by SGN will be done in two phases in Tunbridge Wells, and started on Monday. They are expected to last for about five months as 3.5km (2.2 miles) of gas mains are replaced.
While SES Water is replacing water mains on one road between Redhill and Reigate, which could see the road closed until June.
One resident said the work has left him unable to go out, and others shared their mixed reactions with BBC Radio Surrey.
Media caption,
There are mixed opinions from residents of one Redhill route that's closed until June.