It's been a wet summer in the south of England but in Somerset, it seems that when it rains it has the proverbial downpour, as the county suffered a terrible run of bad luck.
The council’s highways teams are trying to complete planned maintenance and improvements works in the village of Bruton, but have been forced into a revised programme to cope with a season of misfortune.
On the first day of work this summer, asbestos was discovered underneath a traffic island on High Street.
Then later that week a sinkhole formed in a separate part of High Street. This meant the works had to be suspended so Coombe Street could be reopened to ease pressure on the network while High Street was under closure.
Happily, during this time, the asbestos was removed and disposed of successfully. However, the troubles were not over, as past and present conspired against the authority.
Modern utilities were found to be shallower in the road surface than expected, and these had to be worked around carefully, and the team also discovered a historic drainage system under the road. Efforts to keep working around this old infrastructure, alongside conserving this in partnership with South West Heritage, also complicated life on the tools.
Cllr Mike Rigby, Somerset Council’s executive lead member for transport and digital said: 'Firstly, thank you to everyone in and around Bruton for their patience and co-operation. We appreciate this has been challenging for all concerned.
'These works have not been easy to deliver for a variety of reasons, but the team is working as swiftly and as safely as they can to get everything done, and to bring disruption to traffic in Bruton to an end.'
Then to top it all off, as the council was announcing changes to the programme, it sent out a press statement with the wrong dates.
A revised programme will now see Coombe Street closed as part of a small improvements scheme until Friday 18 August under a 24/7 closure. The scheme will then move to High Street on Sunday 20 August, and the road will remain shut between the hours of 9:30am and 5pm until Friday 1 September.
A planned resurfacing scheme on Patwell Street will be undertaken between 6pm and 11:30pm excluding weekends, running from Thursday 24 August to Wednesday 30 August.
Fingers crossed.
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