The story behind those yellow ‘Roadworks until December’ signs

In case you wondered why the council’s contractors were digging up mature hedges and rehoming nesting birds outside the Civic Plaza today, here is a summary:

Unable to use the ringfenced ‘Transforming Cities Fund’ to fill in some of the increasingly dangerous potholes in the borough’s local roads, Hampshire County Council is about to embark on the next phase of its local cycling and walking infrastructure projects. The warning signs have been up for a couple of weeks now, threatening roadworks ‘from May 15 til December‘. Those of you assuming that the road surface on the Civic Plaza roundabout and its approach roads are about to be resurfaced may be disappointed.

The illustration below shows the scope of the works being done to ensure that people walking or cycling have easier and safer access from Havant and South Downs College to Havant’s notorious railway footbridge, that jewel in the crown of the town centre. (Let’s hope that the replacement of that part-closed, rusting and dangerous structure is next on HCC’s development list.)

Don’t worry, they’re not going to be doing this in one hit.

Elmleigh Road is going to get the treatment first. If you need access to the station’s north car park or if you’re picking up or dropping off passengers to that side of the station, be warned that access to the ‘back of’ the station is going to be a tad fraught until end July. In August and September, the works will then move to the Petersfield Road so plan your ‘spur-of-the-moment’ sunny days on Hayling well in advance!

The charts below show a timeline for this work:

For further details, please refer to the Hampshire County Council web page here.