Safety and surface improvements for vital city routes
Painswick Road and Eastern Avenue roundabout – both busy commuter links in Gloucester – are being treated to a brand new road surface and safety improvements.
Road crews will be resurfacing Painswick Road between Eastern Avenue and The Wheatridge, resurfacing and clearing vegetation from the A38 Eastern Avenue Roundabout to improve visibility and road condition, and making much needed safety improvements to the Cotteswold Road/Painswick Road junction.
Work begins on 14th October along the busy Painswick Road which up to 9,000 commuters use every day.
Both sides of Painswick Road over a length of 1.36 km will be resurfaced, with highway crews laying a massive 1,560 tonnes of brand new road material.
The resurfacing of the A38 Eastern Avenue Roundabout, which will see an additional 250 tonnes of new road material being laid, is using extra road investment announced in September.
This will improve the road condition for the 25,000 commuters who use the busy roundabout every day.
The local community has been concerned about the safety of the junction of Painswick Road with Cotteswold Road, and local residents were asked for their views on what was needed to make it safer in July.
Acting on feedback, the mini roundabout will be removed and changed to a formal T-junction with a raised platform along the full length of the junction, slowing vehicles down.
Further safety improvements will see new warning signs erected and a vehicle activated ‘30 slow down’ sign to further reduce vehicle speeds.
Crews should have completed the mammoth task by 19th November.
Highway crews are doing all they can to reduce disruption, and will carry out the improvements in stages using a mixture of traffic light controls, Sunday, night-time and half term working and phased weekday road closures along specified sections of road when required.
- Phase 1, 14th October to 25th October, will see safety improvements made to Cotteswold Road/Painswick Road. The road will remain open during this time, with work carried out using temporary traffic lights.
- Phase 2 involves Sunday working only on 20th and 27th October and 3rd November to resurface the busy A38 Eastern Avenue/Painswick Road roundabout under road closure. Crews will be working from 8am Sunday 3rd November to 6am Monday 4th November to get the work done to avoid closures on Remembrance Sunday.
- Phase 3 will see removal of trees and other vegetation on the A38 Eastern Avenue Roundabout from 4th to 8th November using an A38 lane closure between 7am and 7pm.
Resurfacing of Painswick Road will be carried out in three phases:
- Phase 1, between 28th October and 1st November resurfacing between Cotteswold Road and Heron Way. This section will be closed from 7am to 7pm. Half term working here will reduce disruption to the nearby school.
- Phase 2, 4th to 8th November, resurfacing from A38 Eastern Avenue to Cotteswold Road. This section will be closed from 7am to 7pm.
- Phase 3, 11th to 19th November, resurfacing from Heron Way traffic lights to The Wheatridge. This section will be closed from 7am to 7pm.
To reduce disruption, work will only be carried out on one section at a time.
Highway teams have been working with bus services on the road work programme so plans are in place to manage any disruption. Bus customers are asked to check directly with their bus service operator for information on service changes.
Vernon Smith, Cabinet member for highways and flood said, “It’s great that additional investment in roads has meant we can extend this scheme to include the resurfacing of the A38 roundabout, which 25,000 people use every day.”
“This is a huge scheme for Gloucester, and one of the biggest we have planned in the county this year.”
“People have told us the condition of Painswick Road needed to be improved and its junction with Cotteswold Road made safer. We have listened and we are acting.”
“Please be patient. We are at the beginning of a journey to turn roads around. It will take time and it will mean roadworks but the end result will be worth it.”