Bucks Council to use emergency powers and new highway contracts to fast track essential road repairs

Bucks Council has announced it will use emergency powers and new highway contracts to fast track essential road repairs.

The authority has also provided a big update on works in and around Aylesbury and beyond in a statement on Friday.

And it has also urged people to stop abusing road workers after a spike in incidents, saying: “Road worker abuse has increased this year – please respect our workforce while they make improvements to Buckinghamshire’s Highways.”

Bucks Council statement on roadworks in full:

Given the current condition of the roads, which is an issue across the country at present, the council will also be using its emergency powers, alongside the new highway contracts, to fast track a number of essential road repairs. Unfortunately, it will not always be possible to give our normal periods of advance notice, but we believe that undertaking the road repairs themselves are the most important issue at this time. We will endeavour to advise local communities and businesses in the immediate vicinity via letter drops. However, if this is not possible, we will ensure that any inconvenience or disruption is minimal whilst we undertake the essential repairs and improvements.

We continue to make big progress on road repairs across Buckinghamshire to the extent where we have now completed around 20,000 road repairs since our new Buckinghamshire Highways contract began on 1 April. These repairs, which are on top of our annual resurfacing programme, demonstrate the impact the very harsh conditions that last winter had on our road network.

We have 15 teams working on road repairs, including potholes, some round the clock, seven days a week. Alongside this we continue to roll out our programme of bigger improvement works, with over 200 larger resurfacing, drainage and road safety projects on specific sections of the highways.

As part of Buckinghamshire Council’s £105m investment in roads across the county over four years, work is taking place at the following locations through Buckinghamshire Highways' Strategic Highway Maintenance Programme.

The works are part of a rolling programme of countywide work and some activities are extremely weather dependent, therefore dates shown are subject to change at short notice. These dates may also be subject to change depending on the availability of materials and unforeseen circumstances out of our control. We apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused.

Conventional surfacing works:

Thame Road, Haddenham. From Thame Road roundabout to Dollicot junction (Monday 18 September to Thursday 28 September)

Conventional surfacing works using a full road closure. In operation between 8pm and 6am.

Blind Lane Service Road, Bourne End. From Marlow Road junction to Nothern Woods Junction (Wednesday 20 September to Friday 29 September)

Conventional surfacing works using a full road closure. In operation between 7am and 7pm.

Blind Lane, Flackwell Heath. From South Goddington Road junction to SMA Joint (Monday 25 September to Friday 29 September)

Conventional surfacing works using a full road closure. In operation between 8pm to 6am.

Cock Lane, High Wycombe. From Pimms Grove to No. 21 Cock Lane (Thursday 28 September to Saturday 30 September)

Conventional surfacing works using a full road closure. In operation between 8pm to 6am.

Footways resurfacing works:

Edwards Close, Aylesbury (Monday 11 September to Friday 30 September)

Footway resurfacing works using a footway closure. In operation between 7:30am to 5:30pm.

Barnard Crescent, Aylesbury. From No. 111 to the entrance to garage area (Monday 25 September to Friday 30 September)

Footway resurfacing works using a footway closure. In operation between 7:30am to 5pm.

Drainage works:

Swan Lane/Castle Street, Marsh Gibbon (Monday 14 August to Sunday 1 October)

Drainage works using a full road closure 24 hours a day/7 days a week.

High Street, Old Amersham. From Church Street to Mill Lane (Monday 4 September to Friday 13 October)

Drainage works using a two-way signal. In operation Monday to Friday between 7am-7pm.

Street Lighting - various locations in High Wycombe (Thursday 10 August – Friday 29 September):

As part of this year’s rolling programme, various outdated street lighting lanterns will be replaced across Buckinghamshire, starting in High Wycombe converting 680 lanterns and upgrading them with LED energy-efficient lighting. This saves approximately 70% of the energy previously used, whilst providing better quality lighting and reducing future maintenance costs. So far, we have replaced 354 lanterns (52%).