I arranged a site visit with SGN gas and the ward councillors to Poulters Lane, Worthing, where the whole road is supposedly closed for three months for laying new gas pipes, to see if this could be speeded up and if better diversions could be put in place.
This seems an extraordinary length of time to shut off such a busy road and has been causing no little traffic chaos. They are now looking at the situation and if all goes smoothly then three months should be an overly-cautious estimate.
The problem is there is one pipe to serve houses on both sides of the road which is why one lane could not be closed at a time to reduce the inconvenience.
SGN will have replaced over 500m of their old gas main by the end of this week. This is the section of their network between South Farm Road and Offington Gardens. They will also have replaced the service pipes to each individual property between South Farm Road and Offington Drive.
The service pipes to properties on both sides of Poulters Lane are fed from a single gas main in the north side of the road. At times they will need to dig across the road so they can replace the gas pipes to those properties on the south side of the road. They need to close the section of Poulters Lane around their work area to allow them to replace these pipes safely.
They are committed to doing everything they can to help traffic flow along their diversion route during the closure of Poulters Lane. Following a meeting with their contractors, they are increasing signage along the diversion routes and adding ‘no parking’ cones at strategic points. They are also continuing to work closely with West Sussex County Council who will look to change the phasing of the Thomas A Beckett traffic lights to ease congestion at the junction.
They are aware that some alternative routes, including Offington Avenue, have become more congested than usual as motorists divert around our road closure. They are encouraging motorists to follow the official signed diversion routes to help maintain traffic through the area.
They will publish project updates on their website every other week to keep customers and stakeholder informed of their progress. You can find these updates at www.sgn.co.uk/Poulters-Lane-Worthing.