Park Road South
Just when we’re starting to see the end of the disruption at Elmleigh Road, Petersfield Road and the Park Road North ‘Civic Plaza/HSDC’ roundabout, Hampshire County Council are about to start digging up the southbound approach to Langstone Roundabout outside Bosmere School. You might have noticed the signs appearing, showing that the preparatory works start on Monday 18 September with main construction starting on Friday 29 September. The expected completion date is a currently somewhat vague ‘Winter 23/24’.
So what are Hampshire County Council up to now? Well they’re spending more of that Transforming Cities Fund cash to ‘improve the capacity of Park Road South’ by moving the bus stop outside Bosmere School and stretching the A27 East lane back a little further.
In a survey conducted back in January 2021, just 16 out of 74 respondents thought that this work would ‘improve traffic flow’. Of that worryingly small survey sample, 24 respondents gave reasons for disagreeing with the proposed changes. Of these, nine made suggestions for alterations to the scheme, nine believed the scheme would have limited impact on congestion levels, six saw no need to reduce the speed limit, and six expressed unspecified opposition to the scheme.
Elmleigh Road update
Meanwhile, Elmleigh Road will be completely closed from Monday 18 September for 7 days for resurfacing work necessitated by the walking and cycling improvement works currently in progress.
We’re actually starting to question the safety and effectiveness of these changes and have asked HCC for comment. On the northern side of Elmleigh Road where some works appear now to have been finished, the pedestrian footpath is now jammed in tight to the hedge to make way for a two way cycle track and a slightly narrower roadway.
The problem is, that as these images show, the kerb between the main roadway and the cycle track is poorly defined in most places, having a gentle gradient with no clear tactile boundary. Maybe the finished surface will be surfaced in a different colour from the roadway or short bollards will be erected along that boundary to make it clear that it’s not roadway.
At the eastern end of Elmleigh Road where work appears to have been completed, the overall effect is one of a significant extension of the width of the roadway which seems to defeat the object. Along this particular stretch, and in fact along the whole length of Elmleigh Road, the strangely over-engineered ‘kerb’ between the pedestrian carriageway and the cycleway is similarly indistinct and of variable definition. Quite how how disabled, in particular visually impaired pedestrians are expected to navigate this footway without potentially stumbling down the kerb into the cycleway remains to be explained.
At the Petersfield Road junction the roadway has been narrowed to dissuade HGVs and long articulated vehicles from using the Elmleigh Road route into New Lane rather than the designated Crossland Drive route. But will it have that desired effect?
Far from tightening this road junction, the overall effect seems to be the provision of a far wider usable expanse of asphalt for those vehicles to more easily enter Elmleigh Road eastbound. We hope that a string of effective bollards will mark the boundary between the cycle lane and the roadway to maintain safety and make clear the actual width of the roadway.
Earlier works north of the station
The eastern-most ‘cycle chicane’ sign in Eastern Road has been felled (again) by an HGV heading west along Eastern Road. Local residents are still regularly sighting large multi-axle articulated trucks using this route from New Lane, heading south from the commercial premises south of Crossland Drive to access the strategic road network via the Elmleigh Road rat-run. Some, but by no means all, of these are foreign registered vehicles leaving tenants of the Kenwood Estate. The recently completed safety works at the junction of Elmleigh Road, Eastern Road and Leigh Road north of Havant Station appear to be seen as an entertaining challenge by some of these drivers who have little difficulty at all in negotiating this ‘improved’ junction. The risk to pedestrians, however, remains significant.
The roads north of the station are seeing a noticeable increase in ‘private car’ traffic due to the number of Amazon Flex delivery drivers using this route, mostly between 12:00 noon and 10:00pm. This traffic will inevitably continue to increase as Amazon ramps up its Havant operation and more people demand same day delivery.
The Southleigh link road
Yes, you guessed it. One of the most pressing requirements for road network improvement in the borough is nowhere to be seen in Hampshire County Council Highway’s schedule of works. Without it, the much needed housing at Southleigh can’t happen, Park Road South will have no relief from the increasing levels of traffic from Amazon and developers like Barratt Homes will continue to raise speculative planning applications in an attempt to side-step the issue.
Worse still, HBC Planning Services will continue to ‘validate’ these applications and waste everyone’s time and effort!