Monkbar to close for overnight resurfacing on Sunday

Following the completion of the traffic signal renewal at the junction of Monkbar, Lord Mayor’s Walk and St Maurice’s Road, City of York Council will be resurfacing the junction from Sunday 10 May.

To minimise disruption work will take place overnight from 7.30pm – 5am and is expected to take five nights to complete, weather dependant. The work includes resurfacing the road and adding markings.

All crews carrying out the works will be operating under strict social distancing guidance due to the current Coronavirus restrictions. All but essential maintenance has been paused during the outbreak of Coronavirus.

We have worked with trade unions and our supply chain to develop new ways of working during the pandemic. This ensures that works on the road can happen in a safe way for front line operatives and the public, whilst roads are quieter than normal.

This follows guidance from the Department of Transport, which has asked council’s to continue with normal highway maintenance as much as possible.

To minimise disruption the resurfacing work will be carried out in two phases as follows:

Phase 1 (Sun 10 May – Tue 12 May): Jewbury/St Maurice’s Road and Goodramgate Closed with traffic on Lord Mayor’s Walk and Monkgate down to a single lane operating under lane closures and temporary lights. Jewbury/St Maurice’s Road will be turned in to a 2-way road allowing access and egress to and from the hotels and Cloisters Walk only (no through traffic). Access and egress will only be granted to St Maurice’s Road/Jewbury from the direction of Layerthorpe/Foss Islands Road/Peasholme Green. The slip road on Foss Bank to Jewbury will also be closed.
Phase 2 (Wed 13 May – Thu 14 May): All roads will remain open with traffic on Lord Mayor’s Walk and Monkgate down to a single lane.

The roads will need to be closed during the resurfacing work on phase 1. Clearly signed diversion routes will be in place for through traffic. The closure is to ensure that adequate health and safety is maintained for local residents, the travelling public and the contractors undertaking the work.

Emergency services will be permitted through the works in any situation. A one way system will be in place on pavements to ensure that people can effectively distance themselves from other footway users.

All on street parking in the working area and within close proximity to the works will be suspended including a small section of on street parking on Lord Mayors Walk during work times.

During phase 1, Bus services 12 and 14 will be diverted via Layerthorpe, Eboracum Way and Heworth Green meaning Monkgate will not be served. Buses from the direction of Haxby to York/Foxwood will not be affected.

For more information visit www.york.gov.uk/monkbar

So which roads and paths will be resurfaced this year in York?

Highways programme published

Tadcaster Road will be resurfaced

Somewhat later this year, the York Council has published its highways maintenance programme. The list reveals that the Council has cut its repairs budget by £100,000 compared to last year.

In total the Council will invest £12.3 million this year.

Not all will be spent on roads and paths as the budget also covers repairs to the City Walls (£626,000), replacement street lighting columns (£578,000) and drainage/gulley works (£1.7 million).

Most of the budget has been allocated to structural maintenance works.

£700,000 will be spent just filling in potholes as they appear.

The report gives no details of how the £500,000 repairs budget, delegated to wards last year, is being spent.

The details of the allocations – and which streets are affected – can be viewed via these links

Footpaths

Major carriageway works

Patching

School Street misses out on the resurfacing list again

The programme is likely to disappoint some residents. They may have hoped that the new Council would get to grips with the, now huge, backlog in highway resurfacing work needed in the City.

But it seems that many residential roads and paths will not get the attention that they need.

In the Westfield ward only two streets will be resurfaced. A second section of Gale Lane will be resurfaced as will the roundabout at the junction of Askham Lane and Ridgeway.

Badly worn footpaths like this on the odd numbered side of Askham Lane, in Walton Place, on Ridgeway, and on Otterwood Lane, together with the carriageways on Foxwood Lane and School Street, don’t get a mention.

Another hazardous road that didn’t make the cut

There is better news in Dringhouses with a large £1/2 million allocation is included for the resurfacing of Tadcaster Road while several streets in Woodthorpe* will be repaired. Work has already started on resurfacing part of Moor Lane.

The budget allocation predated the current health crisis. Like most of the Council’s expenditure commitments it is likely to be subject to review in the light of falling revenues.

Paradoxically, the current crisis has served to re-emphasise the importance of keeping basic highway surfaces in a condition which does not pose a threat to the safety of vulnerable users like pedestrians and cyclists.

We will be pressing for the details of the “ward resurfacing programme” to be released for scrutiny.

Streets identified for “micro patching” include; Lowick (£8,700), Troutbeck (£7,000), Woodthorpe School Entrance (£2,400), Overdale (£6,200), Glenridding (£15,000), Windermere (£6,200), Brambledene (£27,000), Dringfield Close (£6,500), Wains Road (£40,000), &
Lockwood Street (£6,000)

Recycling centres to reopen?

Speculation is mounting that the government will ask local Councils to reopen civic amenity (recycling) sites where they have been closed. York’s Hazel Court facility has been closed for several weeks now – something which has been a particular issue since green waste bin emptying was also suspended. There are problems with fly tipping in some neighbourhoods.

Several local authorities have kept their amenity sites open and have also continued green waste collections.

Elsewhere some other public services such as street cleaning have generally been improved since the lockdown with hand sweeping being reintroduced on some estates.

We’ve reported several issues for attention

The carcass of a dead badger has been left on the A64 road margin for about a week now. Cleansing responsibilities on trunk roads are shared between local authorities and Highways England but no one has so far sorted out what may become a health issue.

Nearby there is a lot of tree detritus on the A64 cycle path. Makes “social distancing” more difficult. Highways England claims that the York Council is responsible for cleansing this and other similar paths.

We’re still awaiting the first sustained rainfall of this spring. When it comes you can expect hedges to grow quickly. This one near London Bridge on Tadcaster Road is already impeding the path. It has been reportsd to the York Council.

Not just hedges, This tree on Thanet Road is obstructing the cycle path.

NB. We have been told that the York Council will be publishing its highway programme for the current year “in the near future”.

Road repairs let down in York

The York Council has announced that 3 carriageways in the City will be resurfaced starting next week.

They are;

*Moor Lane: initial works will take place on Tuesday 28 April, between 6pm to 9pm, weather permitting. The works will consist of removing all existing road studs in preparation for resurfacing works. The resurfacing works will take place on Sunday 3 May between 9.30am to 11am.
A1237 – A59 roundabout to B1224 roundabout: initial works will take place on Tuesday 28 April, between 7pm to 9pm, weather permitting. The works will consist of removing all existing road studs in preparation for resurfacing works. The resurfacing works will take place on Sunday 3 May 2pm to 4.30pm.
Wigginton Road (section 1) – Railway line to A1237: The resurfacing works will take place on Sunday 3 May between 7am and 9am.

The Council has still not announced its full highways repair programme for the forthcoming 11 months. The Council is now in breach of its own code of conduct. It recently agreed click to make available programme and performance information in a transparent way.

While the current health crisis may have delayed some aspects of the Councils work, there is no excuse for the lack of any communication with stakeholders.

Last year the programme was published in March although those documents have still not been listed on the Councils Open Data site (which includes only the 2018 list).

The Council has also removed programme details from its – constantly updated – GIS mapping system.

At the same time the Council’s “report it on line” system is proving to be unreliable. Intermittently it is preventing a “flag” being dropped onto its GIS map indicating the location of potholes and, health related, cleansing issues. The issue is being followed up by a local Councillor. It is important to restrict the use of alternative communication channels – such as telephone and email – as Council resources need to be concentrated on the coronavirus response.

An FOI will be submitted to obtain the highways list. It would be better if officials/Councillors simply offered a progress report.

*Assumed to be Moor Lane Dringhouses

Potholes being filled by North Yorkshire

Good to see the North Yorkshire County Council levelling potholes on roads near Healaugh today. The roads are seeing increased use by Corona exercisers (cyclists and walkers) at present, many of whom are from York.

The potholes are mainly on the margins – an area mostly used by cyclists. Obstructions there can present a hazard.

Potholes being patched on rural road by North Yorkshire County Council.

The situation within the York Council area is less clear. Some highway defects have been marked up but it is unclear when repairs will actually be completed.

There has been no announcement by the Council on when the additional pothole filling team will start work although this may be influenced by the current health crisis.

Similarly there has been no announcement of a list of roads and paths that will be resurfaced during the current (financial) year. Resurfacing work is, of course, even less likely to restart before the health restrictions are lifted, but normally a list of roads would have been published by now.

One piece of good news is that contractors have been seen treating weeds around the Honeysuckle House amenity area on Chaloners Road today. It seems that the Council may be able to keep on top of weed growth on paths this year.

Council agrees to fill in pothole

The York Council has agreed to fill in a pothole on Askham Bryan Lane. Initially the Council refused to address the issue but have now promised routine action.

The Council will have an additional team filling in potholes this year so it is still worth reporting any that represent a hazard for road users in general and cyclists in particular.

York Council trying to maintain public service standards

Good to see at least some public services continuing in York. Verges and open spaces are being cut today in west York. This will be appreciated by the many additional users who are using parks and other spaces for their daily exercise.

Also the pot hole filling team has been at work with long standing hazards on Foxwood Lane patched this week. This should make cycling safer.

Still a lot of catching up to do though and the highways side.

Some of the potholes on Foxwood Lane have been levelled.

Pothole issue to be raised with responsible Councillor

So many pothole reports from both Councillors and residents are being fobbed off by Council officials, that the issue is going to be raised at transport chief Cllr Andy D’Agorne’s meeting on Thursday.

All complainants receive these days is a message saying

“The current status of your report is: closed – the problem has been inspected and no follow up work is required”

In the past – even if a pothole report didn’t meet what were termed “intervention levels” – an explanation of why work would not be carried out was given. That practice seems to have ceased.

As most on line reports include a photograph, there is clearly a risk and one that is likely to continue to deteriorate.

Kingswood Grove
Uneven carriageway needs patching

NB. We have reported again leaf detritus which has been in some of the gutter in little Green Lane since the autumn

Action needed on verges and roads

The Council will be publishing its highways resurfacing programme for the next financial year shortly. There is now a major backlog of work in the area. It is not just potholes that need filling. Large areas of carriageway and several footpaths need patching or resurfacing.

The present Council promised to reconstruct all highways in the City, so it will be interesting to see the extent of next years programme.