1 decade ago
Serving the community in challenging weather conditions
Whether a product of Climate Change or not, extreme weather has become a more prominent consideration for all of society.
Within highways maintenance it presents some particular issues; heavy snow or prolonged exceptional rain fall impacts on the general passage of traffic as well as taking its toll on the fabric of the road, particularly the surface. Equally, exceptionally high temperatures can cause the road surfaces to melt and even ‘deform’ under the immense compressive forces as the structure of the road tries to expand.
There are several key focus areas on the A30/A35 in the context of adverse weather, with the village of Winterboune Abbas on the A35 near Dorchester being one such location. Once again this year it was struck by flash-flooding during the adverse weather which caused travel disruption, albeit short term, with traffic almost at a standstill.
Our road workers spent many hours at the village clearing floodwater and runoff debris from the draining channels to allow the water to flow away as soon as the storm had passed and to generally assist residents as far as they were able.
It was positive to see that the limited works the road workers were able to implement in 2012/2013 to protect the village from flooding appeared to have made the location slightly more resilient.
Connect Roads continues to work with the Highways Agency and Lead Flood Authorities along with other statutory organisations to develop future practicable possible flood resilience enhancements along the route at locations susceptible to flood.