Major delays on the A256 Sandwich Bypass by Discovery Park are expected to continue as Southern Water carries out work on a second sewer pipe..
On site repairs, aided by some 27 tankers to control the sewer flow, began in December after a pipe burst.
The road was shut between the roundabout near Co Part to the Monks Way roundabout (Dover bound) causing congestion. This closure is still in place,
Peter Stakim, Southern Water’s Incident Manager, said: “We’d like to apologise to users of the A256 near Sandwich who are likely to continue to face major delays. Please allow plenty of extra time for journeys.
“The Southbound carriage way will remain closed between the roundabouts either side of Discovery Park and a diversion is in place along Monk’s Way and through Discovery Park.
“While we repaired a burst in one sewer main before Christmas, fixing another pipe will be a major operation. The pipe runs under the raised section of the A256 near Discovery Park.
“The road’s special construction and the ground beneath it pose special engineering challenges and risk. We have to carry out a detailed technical survey, beginning next week, to ensure our work will not harm the structure of the road when reinstatement is complete.
“This work has been given top priority and our engineers and specialist consultants worked right through the holidays.
“It’s a complex piece of work and we’ll know more about definite timescales once we’ve completed geotechnical surveys over the coming days.”
Southern Water issued updates via social media over Christmas. More details can be found at www.southernwater.co.uk/a256-sewer-repairs
Diversion – Take the exit to Ramsgate Road and follow round on to Monks Way up to the roundabout.
More than £30 million has been spent on renovating Thanet’s sewers in the last five years,
Why not close one lane and put in a contraflow which will cause less problem to other roads. And why put the sewer under the main road or vice-versa in the first place. It could easily have been put alongside so no head-scratching like this has to exist and they could have just got on with it.
I expect someone will now come on and rip this to shreds. Go ahead!
I agree. A contra flow is much more sensible. I also find it hard to believe that a full geological survey does not already exist! Do engineers have any say so in the planning of new roads? Too much been done on the cheap; quick fixes with no thought as to future proofing of foreseeable problems.
Use this road regularly at all times of day and night. Most of the past two weeks no workers or work being done. No wonder its taking so long!
“The road’s special construction and the ground beneath it pose special engineering challenges and risk. We have to carry out a detailed technical survey, beginning next week, to ensure our work will not harm the structure of the road when reinstatement is complete.”
and
“It’s a complex piece of work and we’ll know more about definite timescales once we’ve completed geotechnical surveys over the coming days.”
Perhaps those are the reasons for (apparently) not much happening?
Having people actually working on it would probably speed things up. This is a major road why have they not been working on this day and night? Pretty sure they have enough staff to cover this. Frustrating thing is going an alternative route to Canterbury is not much better, Sturry way is a nightmare or you can go through the country roads and play dodge the pot hole (i hit one, Tyre destroyed)