Residents will be well aware that the road has been blocked for some time at the level crossing as Network Rail attempt their abortive bridge replacement for the second time. If they keep to their original schedule the road should be reopened from Saturday 24 April. Unfortunately there is more to come.
Western Power Distribution will be closing the road again, north of the turning to Cutts, for up to three days from 10 to 12 May to replace telegraph poles. (Details). It is unknown whether this will be a 24 hour closure or only during the day.
The road will then be closed again by Network Rail for “tamping works”, for 5 nights, from 17 to 21 May, but only between 22:00 and 08:00. (Closure Notice)
If anyone is curious as to why the road has been closed for so long without actually achieving anything, according to an email from Network Rail, The reason the new bridge could not be installed was due to the additional time required to complete the crane pads and accommodate the slave crane to meet the requirements of the crane delivered to the site. The Principal Contractor was expecting a smaller crane that did not require a slave crane. their main contractor misjudged the size of crane required and did not allow enough time for pads to support it.