How we communicate about roadworks and maintenance

Planned works

When we carry out road maintenance works, we may need to have traffic management  in place, which may include road closures, temporary traffic lights and lane closures. We understand the importance of communicating in advance what we plan to do.

• We assess which residents, businesses and any other stakeholders (e.g. bus companies, schools, doctors surgeries) will be affected by the work as part of the planning process and contact them directly
• We contact Executive Members for Highways and Transport and local ward Members (including those in adjacent wards if they will be affected), as well as relevant Town/Parish Councils.
• We also post about the most disruptive works on our Traffic and Travel Facebook page and our newsletters.
• Advance warning signs are also erected prior to the works starting, detailing the works duration.

Delays

We plan roadworks in advance but bad weather or other delays may mean that works are postponed or take longer than we originally planned. If we need to make changes to the dates of works, we will update the information on our advance warning signs on site.

Letters 

We have reduced the number of letters that are sent out to individual properties in regard to upcoming works being carried out by the Council and our contractors.

This is in line with our climate emergency action plan, to do as much as possible to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. This decision also supports the Council’s aim to provide an improved and efficient service to our residents, whilst maintaining safety which remains our number one priority. 

Information about all upcoming roadworks, including works being carried out by utility companies, can be found on the one.network mapping system at the top of the page. 

Details about works that we believe will be the most disruptive are also included in our weekly Traffic and Travel newsletter which is sent out via email to those who sign up. We also post this information on our Traffic and Travel Facebook page. 

Letters are generally only delivered to properties if the works involve a road closure that may affect access to a property and take place over more than two days. With the majority of high impact closures, our assets team will aim to visit businesses, schools and surgeries within the closures to see if we need to accommodate requirements prior to the works starting.

Reactive works

These are generally unplanned as they are a result of an issue that has been raised by either an inspector during a safety inspection or a member of the public reporting a problem online via our website. 

Some of these works are required to be completed within 28 days and therefore communications may be carried out closer to start date of the works than if it were planned works.

Urgent works

With urgent works, obviously prior notice is not possible, but we do always try to post on our Facebook page as soon as we are made aware of these works. We would define an urgent issue as something that is very likely to present an imminent threat to life, serious injury, or serious damage to property. 

This could be an issue that our contractor is responsible, for example a deep pothole or exposed electrical wires on a streetlight and they would aim to respond to urgent issues within 2 hours.

Urgent works that need to be carried out by a utility company, such as a burst water pipe, can be very difficult for us to communicate as we are reliant on the utility company advising us which can sometimes take time as they are focused on fixing the issue.