South Gloucestershire Council has announced that survey work on Gipsy Patch Lane for the Cribbs Patchway MetroBus Extension (CPME) project will begin on Monday 26th June.

The work area will be located between Station Road and the Gipsy Patch Lane/Hatchet Road Roundabout (see plan for survey extents).

The work will involve using ground penetrating radar (GPR) equipment to scan the road.  Radar waves will go through the ground and identify where underground utilities, such as gas and water pipes, are located.  No digging will be involved.  The equipment that will be used is not noisy, so any disturbance to local residents will be minimal.

Some of the survey area is on verges and not on the carriageway and this will be undertaken during the day, which is anticipated to take seven working days.

The rest of the survey work will be on the carriageway – this has been planned to take place when it will cause the least disruption and will therefore be carried out overnight between 7.30pm and 5am on three to four weeknights. There will be a requirement to close one lane at a time to undertake the carriageway survey and therefore temporary traffic lights will be used (during the above times only). Vehicles will still be able to travel in both directions but will be controlled by the traffic lights.

The council says that three full weekend closures of Gipsy Patch Lane (at the railway bridge), originally planned for April/May, have had to be postponed. They will, however, still go ahead at a later date.

A GPR survey of the Hatchet Road section of the CPME route was undertaken in February. Further investigations, involving the digging of trial trenches, were carried out in early June.

Image: Indicative artist’s impression of CPME proposals on Gipsy Patch Lane (looking east).

More info: Cribbs Patchway MetroBus Extension (The Journal)

Source: South Gloucestershire Council via Stoke Gifford Parish Council

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Network Rail is advising road users who travel in the vicinity of Bristol Parkway Station to plan ahead as the Hatchet Road bridge is shut overnight for four consecutive Saturdays from this weekend (17th June) to allow crucial upgrade work to take place.

The bridge needs to be closed to allow Network Rail’s ‘orange army’ to prepare the track for the arrival of new Intercity Express Trains (IET) which arrive later this year.

The new IET trains will provide more seats per train, greater comfort, be more reliable as well as having improved wifi and at-seat power sockets.

Ahead of the new trains entering service, Network Rail needs to install the foundations for overhead line equipment used for electrification, repair the bridge arch and lay sections of new track.

To allow the upgrade to take place, the road which runs under the bridge will be closed on Saturday nights from 11pm to 7am on 17th and 24th June and 1st and 8th July.

Mark Morrison, project manager for Network Rail said:

“This crucial upgrade forms part of our Railway Upgrade Plan and is essential in delivering passenger benefits as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by the work to road users and also to residents nearby as it may be noisy.”

A signed diversion route will be in place throughout the road closures and pedestrians will still be able to walk underneath the bridge.

More: Bus service route diversions during the road closures »

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Road users are being warned to expect off-peak temporary traffic lights on Hatchet Road for the next two weeks, as investigatory work in connection with the Cribbs Patchway MetroBus Extension (CPME) scheme is carried out.

A statement on the CPME page of the Travelwest website states that the work involves digging temporary trial trenches to confirm the location of underground utilities.

South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) announced in April that the investigation would be carried out in late April or May, but  no work had taken place by the end of May.

The start date of the roadworks has now been confirmed for Monday 5th June. No explanation has been given for the delay.

A spokesperson for SGC said:

“We will need to close one lane at a time at particular points along Hatchet Road between the Gipsy Patch Lane roundabout and the Ratcliffe Drive roundabout. This will result in temporary traffic lights between 9.30am and 3.30pm on weekdays, avoiding peak traffic times.”

“Vehicles will still be able to travel in both directions but this will be controlled by the temporary traffic lights. We may also need to close particular bus stops for a short period of time when we are digging in close proximity to one. Please note all other bus stops on Hatchet Road will remain open for use at these times.”

A petition calling on South Gloucestershire Council (and the recently elected West of England ‘Metro Mayor’) to abandon the plan for a southbound bus lane along part of Hatchet Road as part of the CPME scheme recently passed the 3,000 signature mark. Opponents say the £2m cost of the bus lane cannot be justified by the minimal journey time savings it will achieve and they object to the “unnecessary destruction of mature trees and hedgerows along both sides of Hatchet Road”.

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Residents campaigning to reverse a decision to construct a one-way bus lane on Hatchet Road in Stoke Gifford say they are confident their petition will reach the critical 2,500 signature milestone in early May.

Under South Gloucestershire Council’s (SGC’s) Petitions Scheme, any petition attracting this number of valid signatures triggers a debate at Full Council, usually arranged at the earliest opportunity.

Around 400 signatures were collected by more than a dozen campaigners who manned a stall in the foyer of Bradley Stoke’s Willow Brook shopping centre on Saturday 22nd April.

Awareness of the campaign has also been raised through the distribution of leaflets to 4,500 homes in Stoke Gifford and Bradley Stoke, while a further 700 leaflets were handed out to passing motorists on Hatchet Road during the morning peak on 5th April.

Several large local employers, including Aviva and Rolls-Royce have also allowed campaigners to reach out to their staff through posters and email circulars.

The proposed new southbound bus lane on Hatchet Road will form part of the Cribbs Patchway MetroBus Extension (CPME) scheme, which will link The Mall at Cribbs Causeway with Bristol Parkway Station and serve the new developments planned for the former Filton Airfield site.

Local residents and councillors are opposed to the bus lane because it will require mature hedgerows and trees to be removed from both sides of Hatchet Road. They also claim it is a waste of money (costing £2m to reduce bus journey times by just 29 seconds, during the morning peak only) and say they are concerned that its construction will cause severe disruption to traffic in the area.

More: Petition is also directed at the new ‘Metro Mayor’ »

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