Warwickshire News Mine

The major announcement in the next week is that Bilton Lane will be closed from 7th April until 27th April inclusive.

Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for highways, said: "In order build the new junction with traffic lights where Bilton Lane meets the new relief road, Bilton Lane will be closed to vehicles and pedestrians from Monday April 7th and until Monday 28th April.

“The closure is a short distance to the northwest of The Bear pub and the existing disused railway bridge. Warwickshire County Council and Carillion PLC would like to apologise for the inconvenience this may cause."

Meanwhile, on the main line of the carriageway, work on service diversions and drainage is continuing. It is hoped that this will enable the major earth moving activities to get underway in April, when it is hoped there will be an improvement in the weather.

At the south end of the scheme, near Potford Dam, British Telecom are continuing with cabling and jointing work which will take about six weeks.

Also in this area, a Lawford Brook Culvert is being constructed. The ground in this area is waterlogged and a rock blanket is currently being placed.
At Sow Brook, where a bridge is to be constructed, diversion work of the Severn Trent water mains are nearing completion.

At Lawford Road Junction, various service diversion work is still being carried out which intermittently requires temporary traffic control.

During the weekend of the 15th and 16th March, sheet piling work was carried out on Parkfield Road in preparation for the construction of one of the bridge wing wall. This had to be done during a closure of the railway so overnight working was unavoidable. Unfortunately the piling operations were very noisy at times, and Carillion plc and Warwickshire County Council apologise for the disturbance this may have caused. The good news is that the piling operations went well and was completed in one weekend instead of the predicted two. This means that no piling work will be carried out over the Easter weekend.

On the River Avon Bridge, the piling on the south abutment has been carried out and there has been a large concrete pour on one of the bases.

The temporary traffic management at the Avon Mill Roundabout will be removed very shortly as the diversion the gas and telecommunications have now been completed.

The progress of the operations has resulted in the footpaths and bridleways that cross the route having to be closed and diversions arranged. More details are available at http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/rwrr

Similarly details of the diversion of Parkfield Road can also be found at this web address.

Work got underway in late summer 2007 on the £36.6 million scheme, with the two-year contract awarded by Warwickshire County Council to Carillion Regional Civil Engineering who competitively tendered for the works. 

The 6km road will stretch from Potford’s Dam on the A4071 to the Avon Mill roundabout at the junction of Newbold Road and the A426 (Leicester Road). The relief road will bring various benefits to the area including:

the removal of through traffic from both Cawston and Bilton villages
the reduction of congestion in the town centre in particular Bilton Road, Newbold Road, Corporation Street and Warwick Street Gyratory.
increased cycling facilities in the Rugby area
allowing the possibility of the railway line re-opening in future.

The informative website at http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/rwrr is proving popular with 10,558 people visiting the website in February, up another thousand on the 9,504 people in January, and well up on the 6,285 checking the Warwickshire County Council Rugby Western Relief Road pages in December.

This compares to September, when just 1,633 visited the pages, and October, where 2,122 visited the pages.

The website provides a host of information and latest developments on the works, including details on the Parkfield Road closure and diversion routes, footpath closures and diversions, ecology measures being taken as part of the works (including the efforts to protect the Great Crested Newt), landscaping plans (such as 2,000 reeds being planted to help with pollution control), and the general programme of works.

Link to WCC