Yesterday workers were ripping up the surface of The Mount prior to moving on down Tadcaster Road.
Initially new gas main pipes will be installed. These will be followed by the new drainage channels which should have been provided in the spring when the carriageway was last dug up.
Roadworks in Tadcaster Road area will mean 6 months of disruption and a £5.6 million cost to taxpayers.
The scheme can be contrasted with other urgently needed repairs elsewhere in west York.
School Street was reported this week for the umpteenth time only for the Council to respond saying that “no further work is required”
School Street area – a patchwork of potholes and faded white lines
It seems that the Council will go ahead with its controversial plan to dig up Tadcaster Road again. No report has been produced indicating the scale of he planned works although the replacement of gas mains is included in the project.
Tadcaster Road cycle path is uneven and overgrown in places.
One area that could do with attention is the off road cycle track between Moor Lane and the A1237.
Parts of the, increasingly well used, path are in poor condition and could do with widening and resurfacing. This would be in line with government policies which seek to encourage the use of sustainable transport modes. So getting their agreement to use a small proportion of the £5 million available budget shouldn’t be a problem.
Narrow path makes social distancing more difficult near Golf Club
A Council media release today confirms what many feared. The Tadcaster Road carriageway is going to be dug up again only 3 months after it was resurfaced.
Resurfacing work was completed in June
The carriageway is currently in excellent condition and contrasts markedly with the condition of most other roads in west York.
But it seems that the Council jumped the gun when they undertook a £600,000 resurfacing scheme earlier in the summer.
The government announced a £5 million improvement budget in July only weeks after work on the road was completed. The government was responding to a bid that the York Council had made earlier in the year.
It is likely that taxpayers will want to know a lot more about how this blunder happened.
The Council media release issued today says,
“One of the busiest roads in York is set to benefit from a £5million government funded road improvement scheme.
City of York Council was successfully awarded funding from the Department of Transport’s Local Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund.
The funding will enable to council to improve large sections of drainage along this route which will reduce localised surface water flooding. The work includes the delivery of additional pedestrian crossings and will ensure the road is maintenance free for the next 10 years.
The authority has been proactively working with all the major utility companies, water, gas, electric, phones, to coordinate their future work. During this process it became apparent that Northern Gas Networks (NGN), were due to carry out major work in 2023. Working in partnership they have brought this work forward to 10 October 2020 ensuring minimum disruption for residents and commuters. The council works are scheduled to start in January 2021.
Cllr Andy D’Agorne, Executive Member for Transport, said at City of York Council, said:
“It’s excellent news that our bid for £5million to upgrade Tadcaster Road to reduce localised flooding has been reviewed by Government and is now in approved. This will deliver much needed improvements to one of York’s busiest routes.
“Our primary goal is to ensure these works are coordinated with utilities companies so that the level of disruption for residents, businesses and visitors is reduced as much as possible.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Wasn’t part of Tadcaster Road resurfaced earlier this year? Yes, the council bid to government for a scheme on Tadcaster Road. The council received confirmation in March that it was unsuccessful and would not receive funding. Therefore the council resurfaced a section of Tadcaster Road as it was in need of urgent repairs between The Horseshoe and St Aubyns Place. However, in June the council was then awarded the £5million funding to improve large sections of drainage along Tadcaster Road which will reduce the risk of localised surface water flooding.
Northern Gas Networks have recently informed the council they have plans to carry out major works to their service at Tadcaster Road by 2025. The council was not made aware of these works before the section of Tadcaster Road between The Horseshoe and St Aubyns Place was resurfaced earlier this year. Whilst it is not an ideal situation, the Council would rather sacrifice a small part of the works that have been undertaken already rather than risk the digging up of the major £5 million scheme in a few years’ time for the Northern Gas Networks scheme.
The York Council has an additional £1.8 million to spend repairing roads in the city. It comes for a central government “potholes and challenge” fund.
In addition, an additional £5 million is available to spend on Tadcaster Road although the carriageway itself there has already been resurfaced earlier in the summer.
Apparently, this additional funding will be allocated to improving drainage systems in the area.
Many roads and footpaths in the City are in poor condition so the extra investment will be welcomed by residents.
However, we are approaching the winter period so the Council needs to move quickly to get the work scheduled.
Disappointing to see litter bins filled to overflowing on the Tadcaster Road entrance to the City. Also some graffiti. We’ve reported both.
Its also disappointing to see that the cycle path near the golf course still hasn’t received any maintenance.
Given that the Council has been rushing around trying to introduce new cycling facilities it seems strange that those which already exist are so badly neglected. Not the way to get people out of their cars and onto their bikes.
Huge amounts of money are on offer to Councils to get issues like this sorted.
cycle path being gradually overgrown. Surface now breaking up.
….but remains inactive on weeds, hedges and other obstructions
The York Council will discuss next week whether to continue a trial which is aimed at removing ice from some cycle paths. A report says that a two tractors operated last winter brushing snow and ice for a small number of off road cycle tracks .
None of these were in the Acomb, Westfield or rural areas.
Cycle paths treated to prevent icing 2019/20
Only a small part of the Tadcaster Road cycle path was treated. “The routes were approximately 18km & 25km long and started and finished at Hazel Court James Street (see map). The service completed 59 runs in total using 9000 litres of pathway KA, the structure friendly non-corrosive solution, and 12000 litres of Probrine, effectively a salt water brine mix”.
The cost of doing the work was £47,000.
According to the report, the City of York Council Cycle Officer says feedback from cyclists can be summarised as “the trial is a vast improvement and that they’d like it extending to other parts of the network which were not included in the trial”.
The winter was (again) relatively mild without sustained periods of sub zero temperatures.
Cyclists in the suburbs and villages will view this report with some scepticism. Once again there seems to have been no objective attempt made to identify the needs of longer distance and leisure cyclists in west York.
Too many off road paths are impeded by weeds, thorn bushes and detritus. Several are now badly rutted. No regular maintenance inspections take place.
The York Council must start taking the needs of all cyclist seriously. Otherwise it will be guilty of posturing.
It should start by increasing the number of inspections that it undertakes.
It should also agree a routine maintenance programme covering sweeping, weed treatment and hedge cutting on off road paths.
It must also acknowledge that periodically it will have to renew notices and refresh white lines. At the moment many of these have just faded away.
Weeds obstruct Tadcaster Road cycle pathMore weeds breaking up the path surfaceThorn branches are hazard on cycle pathsDetritus on oaths which are not regularly sweptMore detritus
The government announced yesterday an allocation of £5 million for road maintenance on Tadcaster Road York. The local LibDem leadership promptly issued a statement saying that the money would be spent on “repairs”.
“There will be £5m each for plans to make the key route network in Liverpool more resilient, to begin further maintenance on the Swanswell Viaduct in Coventry, and for road maintenance on the Tadcaster Road in York“. – Boris Johnson
This will come as a surprise to many. Tadcaster Road (between Middlethorpe Drive and Knavesmire Gates) was resurfaced last month at a cost to local taxpayers of £600,000. This brought over a mile of carriageway up to standard.
That left a ½ mile stretch between Middlethorpe Drive and Sim Balk Lane to complete. Even taking into account the Tesco roundabout and adjacent off road cycle track (which does need to be reconstructed because of tree root damage) we wouldn’t expect resurfacing this section to cost more than £300,000.
There are many other carriageways in York which are in a much worse condition.
We hope that the Council will move quickly to confirm that the funding is intended to deal with the congestion black spot near the College entrance. There are unnecessary tail backs along Tadcaster Road at peak times as a result of large numbers of people leaving the college and using the pelican crossing.
College pelican crossing on Tadcaster Road
This is compounded by on carriageway bus stops and traffic lights at the Sim Balk Lane junction.
Even the provision of a footbridge would look like an expensive solution to this problem (and not necessarily a facility that everyone would choose to use).
Its taken a long time, but the cycle path on Tadcaster Road (A1036) has finally been cleared of obstructions. A one metre margin has been cut and the worst of the overgrowing branches have been trimmed.
The Council still needs to apply some weed killer where grass is breaking through tde surface of the path.
There really needs to be an inspection regime put in place to avoid problems in the future on this, and other, dedicated paths.
After being closed for a time yesterday, St Helens Road has reopened. White lining work there has been completed and is also well advanced on Tadcaster Road.
Both carriageways have been resurfaced.
The contract is expected to be completed tomorrow on schedule although some bad weather is forecast (heavy rain).
The Council is using social media to promote cycling as a way to get to work when the lock-down ends. Many workplaces, offices and shops are expected to reopen during the next fortnight, putting added pressure on a compromised public transport system.
Cycling – particularly at this time of year – may be an option for some people.
But there is little evidence that the Council is addressing everyday barriers to cycling
These days foot-pads aren’t the biggest threat.
The contraflow cycle lane installed on Bishopthorpe Road is an unnecessary hazard. Inexperienced cyclists trying to use it may indeed be intimidated, making them more likely to use other transport modes. (There is an alternative, quiet, route via Vine Street)
Meanwhile on the Tadcaster Road cycle path “social distancing” signs have appeared near the railway bridge. Fair enough, if a problem has been identified. Clearly more families are now walking or cycling to the Askham Bog nature reserve although social distancing on that site is also problematic.
Social distancing signs
Yet scarcely 300 metres further along the cycle path, its width is now reduced to less than 1 metre. Overhanging branches and weed growth are to blame (the weeds are actually now breaking up the bitmac surface) ..
A relatively easy issue to deal with but, despite reports to the Council, no work has been undertaken.
Cycle track obstructed.
Better news further down Tadcaster Road with highway resurfacing works now ahead of schedule. The smoother carriageway surface is much safer for users of 2 wheeled transport.
Tadcaster Road resurfacing due to be completed by 12th June
