14 August 2020
Our local councillor has shared the below update on the on-going traffic disruption on the King’s Road near Oakley Street. SSDRA wanted to share this information as it has been causing traffic issues and delays for over a week.
The information below is from Councillor Rendall:
“I have complained to Cadent, the gas company, who are doing these works and have expressed frustration at the lack of communication or timings.
Nonetheless, there have been updates which I think you may find helpful to improve the traffic;
- Traffic will be closed north bound on Oakley Street to King’s Road from tomorrow morning at 4am (15th August). This will not affect residents right to park or use the road.
- Traffic can still go south on Oakley Street from King’s Road towards Chelsea Embankment
- Bus stops on King’s Road (from Oakley Street) will be closed to improve the traffic (from tomorrow)
- Cadent are increasing the number of advance warning signs further afield
- The works are aiming to be complete by Friday, 28th August
What are the works?
- The current works on King’s Road are Remediation works.
- Cadent are using new robotic technology whereby the large diameter main is being repaired from within the main using a robot which seals every joint. On this main there is approximately one joint every 3m and from this static site they will be able to repair 200m meters of pipe. They are able to work 24/7 as this method is not noisy apart from the initial works to excavate the road to expose the gas main.
- If this work were to be done through the more conventional method of ‘open cut’ it would be far more disruptive and of longer duration as they would need to dig down every 3 meters to expose the joint and then repair it.
It has been disappointing the traffic situation has been mishandled. The Council and TfL have been working with Cadent to try and improve the situation and I hope now some some of the issues may be ironed out. Cadent has statutory rights and they can do these works without local authority authorisation.”