It is wise to be cautious approaching an NDR roundabout – photo © The Eye Snapper

 

Essential work to replace damaged signs and kerbs will start next week on several Broadland Northway roundabouts.

The work will start at the Fir Covert Road roundabout on Monday 5 November and then move to Reepham Road, Drayton Lane, North Walsham Road, Salhouse Road and Plumstead Road in that order. The work is likely to take about a week to complete at each location, and weather permitting, the plan is to complete works at one roundabout before moving on to the next.

The Broadland Northway will remain open at all times with some lane closures in place while work is underway. On all of the busiest junctions the work will be carried out between 9am-4pm which is outside peak hours to minimize disruption. On the other two, Reepham Road and Fir Covert Road, the work will start at approximately 7.30am and continue until dusk.

And while the lane closures are in effect, and traffic management is in place for this essential work, the County Council will also take the opportunity to carry out a number of additional works. Doing the additional works at the same time as the essential work means that any disruption for drivers will be reduced and there will be a saving on the cost of putting traffic management in place another time.

The additional work will include some extra countdown signage being installed and some tweaks made to the white lines to help drivers to use the roundabouts on the Broadland Northway as intended. Also, more trees and shrubs will be planted and grass cutting and pruning will be done while contractors are on site.

This additional work is being carried out following a careful review of the video monitoring that has been carried out on most of the roundabouts. It was clear that issues have been caused by some drivers approaching the roundabouts too fast, and vehicles crossing paths as one of them left the roundabout.

The countdown markers that were installed at the Airport roundabout in July and Wroxham Road in September have already proved successful in helping to remind drivers to slow down on approaching the junction. It is hoped that installing similar additional reminders at the other roundabouts will have the same effect.

The cost for all of the work at each roundabout is expected to be approximately £20,000 and it is hoped that work will be complete by mid-December.

 

Norwich Eye comments: ‘These roundabouts appear to have been designed rather poorly, blaming drivers for the consequences will not be well received by users of this new road”.