A29 At Pulborough To Close Again For Temporary Traffic Signals Upgrade

Sunday, 2 July 2023 06:00

Part of the A29 at Pulborough that suffered a landslide in December of last year, will close again next week so the council can upgrade temporary traffic signals.

Since the introduction of the signals on Church Hill in April, the County Council says it has been closely monitoring the situation.

Although they admit that it remains less than ideal, they say it has operated well, there has been very little congestion and they hope the arrangement has 'helped ease the significant impact that the road closure brought for the residents, businesses and key services for a number of months'.

The council reports that negotiations with the landowners have continued over the last few months, with the hope that they would be able to secure permission to access private land and undertake the essential works on the two embankments under private ownership.

The works, if successful, would see the reopening of Church Hill in both directions and under no temporary traffic control.

A spokesperson at the county council said:

Unfortunately we have not yet been successful in obtaining landowner permission to undertake the works and at this stage we have little confidence that this position will change. The County Council will therefore continue to pursue the more formal legal routes to secure a solution. Unfortunately, at this stage we are unable to provide any time scales for when this will be resolved.

In the meantime, and due to the costs being incurred by the County Council with the current temporary signals, we will be altering the existing arrangement and replacing it with a more sophisticated temporary traffic signal arrangement.

The new temporary system will be vehicle activated and will not require manual control by operatives. Due to the costs being incurred with the current arrangement, this change will, they say, result in a significant cost reduction and saving for the tax payer.

In order to install the new traffic signals, Church Hill will close for two days on July 3 and 4 and will revert to the previous diversion route, for the safety of the contractors delivering the works.

The closure will commence at 9:30am on July 3 to allow the morning’s peak traffic to flow.