Jelson Ltd & Countryside Partnerships, in conjunction with C3 Construction, will be carrying out Section 278 Works at Barrowby Road, Grantham from 4th January 2024 to 31st May 2024. These works are essential to provide suitable access to the new housing developments and associated facilities.

Details of works:

  • The works will be undertaken by C3 Construction on behalf of Jelson and Vistry
  • They will start on Thursday 4th January until Friday 31st May 2024
  • S278 work includes the creation of two right turn lanes, widening the footways, installation of streetlighting, National Grid Electricity and BT Openreach diversions and resurfacing of the carriageway at the end
  • Advanced warning variable message signs to be placed on site.
  • Traffic management will be rolling 3 way traffic lights will be in place to cover five construction phases, as below
  • Traffic signals will be manually operated 07:00hrs-19:00hrs on a daily basis to aide traffic delay, although it is expected to cause some queuing, especially at peak commuter times
  • Southbound slip road exit closure will be in place for the duration of the works – this was a National Highways stipulation to protect the A1 and potential of queuing traffic. Diversion route will be in place via the A607 and back northbound on the A1
  • Temporary 30mph speed limit in place from the Barrowby Gate Roundabout to the LCC boundary
  • Towards the end of the scheme there will be a full closure in place at either night or a weekend to lay the final surfacing – dates to be confirmed closer to the time

You can download the plans here: Barrowby Rd Plans PDF 2mb

##UPDATE 18/12/23##

  • The A1 sliproad closure is only the exit from the A1 Southbound to A52, cars will still be able to join the A1 southbound.
  • There will be additional signage on Muddle Roundabout to direct vehicles to keep it clear – this will be monitored and extra measures taken if neccessary.

##UPDATE 19/12/23##

Additional plans for both pieces of work are available here: Barrowby Rd Plans 2 PDF 4mb

To try and answer a few queries:

Daytime v nighttime working: This is always difficult as nighttime working is more expensive, slower and often creates noise disturbances for residents. The plan is that most of this work will be done during the daytime. There is also limited traffic benefit as open works can’t be just covered to allow roads to be completely reopened.

Traffic Light Operations: While I appreciate the requests to extend the traffic-controlled area from Barrowby to the Muddle Roundabout, the danger of having too long a partial closure of the red time makes the drive too slow and hinders the traffic substantially more. Traffic signals will be manually operated from 07:00hrs to 19:00hrs daily to aid traffic flow, although it is expected to cause some queuing, especially at peak commuter times.

A1 Slip lane closure: The decisions on the A1 closures are down to National Highways, the government agency that runs the trunk roads; they insist on the exit junction closure to avoid cars queueing on the A1.

Joining traffic being blocked by standing traffic: Extra signs will be placed on the junctions, which will be monitored; if required, additional traffic management can be deployed. However, extra lights may end up slowing down traffic, so it’s a balance.

Cycling and Pedestrian users: No dedicated access arrangements are being put in during these roadworks other than some temporary footway and signage arrangements to keep the public away from the controlled working areas.

Speeding Issues: This is being looked at separately, and I will post the latest information separately.

Timescales: Primarily, the timescales are dictated by the developers building the works as part of their housing developments. The plans are checked to ensure they are reasonable, considering the scale of work. Substantial utility diversions will be involved with this set of works, which will add significantly to the time and costs of these types of projects.

##UPDATE 20/12/23##

Weekend Working: There is currently Saturday working every weekend – the plan is to work every Saturday and will most likely also work Sundays (probably not all). The contractor is waiting to speak to the Environmental Health team at SKDC to check that’s ok (as the development has a no weekend/night working planning condition), but we expect that to be fine.

Working Hours: Working hours 7.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday (will extend later when the nights start pulling out) 8am to mid afternoon on a weekend.

##UPDATE 20/02/24##

Foillowing reports of poor traffic management and lack of manual operation I asked the LCC team to investigate and here is the reponse:

I’ve spoken to the site and traffic management company today. A week ago, the traffic management was extended to a longer phase (as planned) which incorporates temp pedestrian crossings. This increases the red time and disrupts the ability to effectively manually control the signals. They are going to review the programme and see how quickly they can reduce the length of the set up down again which will reduce the queues.

The traffic management company has been reminded to ensure the TM operative is proactively seen monitoring the signals and not sat in a vehicle all the time. We will be on site tomorrow to check this firsthand, and I will come back to you later in the week with an update.

Looking at the live traffic data over the last 10 days, it does appear to reflect increased delays – generally impacting inbound, I have never seen a queue (from the data anyway) that extends beyond Barrowby Gate roundabout outbound.

I will continue to monitor it myself and ensure our team keep checking arrangements but if there are issues please let me know.