Hadham Road to shut again, three weeks after it reopened
Hadham Road is to close again, three-and-a-half weeks after it shut having been closed since the start of the year – but this time it will be restricted to school holidays and THREE contractors will be collaborating during the shutdown.
The A1250, one of the major routes into and out of Bishop's Stortford town centre, was shut from January 4 for rolling works on gas mains by Cadent Gas – a continuation of work that started in 2021.
The work began on January 4 and was due to take four months, but in the end the road was reopened on Friday March 10 – two months earlier than originally stated– although it was expected to be closed again later this year, along with Rye Street, for resurfacing.
However, the short stretch of Hadham Road between its junctions with Bells Hill and Maze Green Road is to be closed for the first week of the school Easter holidays, from Monday April 3 to Sunday April 9.
Highways authority Herts County Council (HCC) says it is for "utility connections" by Affinity Water and UK Power Network and for "site investigation works" by Ringway on behalf of HCC.
It added: "The three contractors will be working collaboratively... to prevent the need to close the road on three separate occasions. This will save roughly one week of road space."
The road will be closed 24/7 throughout the week, with extended working hours. Residents of the affected stretch will have access to their homes. The council says there will be "advanced communications and robust signage".
Cllr Graham McAndrew, the county councillor for Bishop's Stortford Rural and HCC's deputy cabinet member for highways and transport, told the Indie: "The works by Ringway is for the investigation of underground services which is required for any potential crossing works."
Test excavations for a pedestrian crossing on Hadham Road, for which school families have been campaigning for three years, were carried out at the end of last year but failed to deliver the full picture of which utilities are under the road.
In January, the Indie reported that further test pits would be required before a crossing got the green light – and HCC made it clear the project might never be completed.
A spokesman for the council told the Indie: "We don't know when, or even if, the proposed crossing will be constructed. This depends on the outcome of the investigation work and the design process.
"If diversions to utility company equipment are required, it could prove costly and make the scheme unviable in terms of funding."
Campaigners say the crossing is vital to enable children to walk safely to and from Bishop's Stortford College, Hockerill Anglo-European College, Herts and Essex High School, St Mary's Catholic School and Northgate and Windhill21 primaries.
A petition signed by 345 people pressed their case after a 2019 survey proved traffic volume was high enough to require a crossing, but the project failed to secure core funding from the council because there was no "collision history" in the past five years.
