Dunstans Road resurfacing

[James Barber]

Dunstans Road pavements have largely been replaced. The next step, starting on Monday, will be resurfacing the whole of Dunstans Road all the way from its junction with Upland Road to Forest Hill Road. The works will last upto two weeks and take place from 8am-5pm during daylight. These works form part of the annual ?4M road maintenance budget for Southwark Council.

The work will be completed in three sections:

1. Forest Hill Road to Underhill Road

2. Underhill Road to Goodrich Road

3. Goodrich Road to Upland Road.

I've been assured that letters have gone out to residents. But clearly this will have an impact beyond the immediate residents. If you know someone these works will affect please do tell them.

[brum]

Thanks. I've received the letter. Can you please tell me, what type of traffic calming will be used for the new road surface? The existing type, road cushions, are completely useless.

[themaninblack]

... and ruin the tracking on your car.

?4 million isn't an awful lot of money given the state of the roads at the moment. Do you have any idea how much it costs to do a road like Dunstans?

[Shaggy]

No idea whatsoever. How much?

[James Barber]

Crystal Palace Road when its finally finished will have costs ?800,000. So ?4M doesn't go far but we've been spending ?4M every year for 8 years so gradually catching up with the previous decades of neglect.

[themaninblack]

800k?! I'd love to see how that is broken down. Somebody somewhere is earning a pretty penny out of our council tax.

That figure seems utterly unreasonable to me.

[marcos]

The state of the pavements that have been replaced still leave a lot to be desired in some places.

Our entrance stone has been cracked at the corner by Conway, some of the new stones our side (30 Dunstans) have not been cemented in properly (I did contact Southwark about this by email, and the next night sand was put in, thought not cement, and the stones at the bottom of the road are still loose).

Does Councillor Barber know when this work will be rectified?

[Knomester]

At last! Dunstans has been in serious need of attention for a long time.

We live on a road off Dunstans but have not been notified. Surely it will impact us (and parking on our road) - was notification only sent to residents on Dunstans Road?

Are there plans to upgrade the pavements and roads on Ryedale, Cornflower, Bachlier, etc?

[New Bhoy]

Who's doing the repairs...? Last time they were in my area they reversed into my girlfriends car and wrote it off! to be fair - they left a note, but still.....

[themaninblack]

This has got me thinking.

?4m budget. CP Road is approximately 1 mile long and costs ?800k.

That means the ?4m would only do 5 miles of roads / pavements annually.

James - Can I ask how much is spent each year on things such as (so called) traffic calming and raised junctions? I drive in Southwark every day and a fair proportion of the roads are in a shocking condition, yet many seem to have new humps and bumps installed.

Surely it would be more wise to spend the budget used for adding traffic calming to first repair the pavements and roads that are in a bad condition?

[James Barber]

Hi themaninblack,

Southwark's ?4M annual spend on road maintenace comes from Southwark's main budget. Traffic calming, road humps, etc normally come from Transport for London funding that Southwark bids for. Some limited works of this type come from Section 106 where a developer recompenses an area for the extra traffic their new development creates or Cleaner, Greener, Safer funding that each community council/ward has each year.

In summary, different pots of money.

Southwark Officers obtain condition reports and the road renewals are based on the condition reports. Worst obviously happening first. With time I'd hope we will catch up with the decades of under maintenance. It's a bit like a mortgage. You don't notice the principal going down for some years. Hope that makes sense.

What wont have helped is this winter has had such cold freezing weather accelerating wear and tear.

[tulip]

They have just resurfaced a portion of Lordship Lane between Goodrich and Heber that was perfectly fine. No idea why this was done given the state of many of the nearby roads since the frost.

[James Barber]

Hi tulip,

All Southwark orads get structurally assessed and officers advised this was the most needy road. The superficial look of roads apparently isn't a good indicator.

[PeckhamRose]

You're having traffic angering* measures, in those streets?

Wow!

(* Well they don't calm me down!)

Was talking to prospective tory councillors about this the other day - not that I'd ever vote tory you understand - but they seemed to agree that road bumps / cushions are more dangerous. The Institute of Advanced Motoring says one should drive to plan in advance, look as far ahead as possible to give yourself time to make decisions, but with road bumps everywhere that can't happen.

Having said that, I am glad some money is going to make the roads smoother - apart from if they put bumps in!

[James Barber]

Hi PeckhamRose,

Did the Institute of Advanced Motoring say the whole sentence you appear to be quoting?

Or have you added the last part?

Clearly in ideal world no road would need traffic calming as all dirvers would drive at a reasonable speed. As a biker I'm surprised you don't find 20mph beneficial as bikers are much more likely to not be spotted if cars driving faster.

[brum]

James, what type of traffic calming measures will be used for Dunstans Road, please? We could do with some really effective ones!

[artypants]

It was a nightmare when the pavements were being done along Dunstans Road. I lost count of the number of times I walked past rubble, tools and general waste that were left scattered around the area. They obviously had to return and re-finish one side as they'd left it worse off than it had started, and it still isn't great.

I love that this area is getting some attention but you might want to get one of the council folk down to check it out before you pay or re-employ the contractors.

[ruthmct]

I was just thinking how awful the potholes in Dunstans Road were as I cycled along it. Glad something's being done about it.

Anyone who thinks they have a hard time with speed bumps should try it in my Smart car - the backwheels are going up one slope while the front wheels are coming down the other, and of course there's no way it's wide enough to straddle the cushion. And Smart cars have "firm" suspension at the best of times. The speed cushions in Underhill Road are worst, as they are particularly tall :-(

R.

[themaninblack]

artypants Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> ....they'd left it worse off than it had

> started, and it still isn't great.

>

> ...you might want to get one of the council folk

> down to check it out before you pay or re-employ

> the contractors.

Hear hear. The pavement isn't great at all. Flags not level, inspection covers poorly refitted. If the council inspected it before they paid then they need new specs. If they didn't then the bloody well should have.

It seemed that most of the time there were two or three guys working on it. For three months maybe. Why not have a team of twenty doing it over a few weeks? The overall cost must surely be the same.

[James Barber]

For this consultation all residents on Dusntans Road were sent letter by recorded delivery on 5 February.

I've had assurance that Dunstans Grove access will be maintained throughout the Dunstans Road resurfacing - hence the reason they were'nt notified. I've pointed out that even though it wont greatly affect them being told that would have been better.

This morning at 8.30am only two cars had to be moved and that the contractors re planned the day around no.71 being able to move.

So all in all a good start to the works - except the signs stating the number to call with any problems did'nt have the telephone mnumber. The contractors Conways are correcting this.

Any problems let Conways know, or let me know.

[joom]

Walked down Dunstan's this morning, no cars on the road - something we never see anymore. It was lovely! The road's looking good, too.

[ryedalema]

They are all on our road! Grrr.

[James Barber]

Its not for long. But thanks for everyone's patience.

[Whoosh]

Thanks for the information James, very useful.

I'm also curious to know what 'traffic calming' measures are planned for Dunstans and other roads. It's obviously too late to influence anything now, but can I just say that I hate speed bumps with a passion. To me they clearly just add danger in multiple ways, especially as a biker where they pose a very real risk. The triple road cushion type are the worst as car drivers will just head down the middle of the road - comfort is far more important than squishy oncoming cyclists/motorcyclists unfortunately.

I commute from ED to London Bridge every day by motorbike, and I'd say that well over 90% of any near misses and heart-in-mouth moments are down to speed bumps. Peckham is worse than ED where they're often positioned on bends on very broken roads that you'd really have to experience first-hand on a motorbike to understand the very real danger of them, but they're a liability everywhere.

[bon3yard]

Blimey they were quick. Impressive.