The A3022, Brixham Road, Paignton is set to undergo a widening scheme.
The scheme comes as part of Torbay Council’s £11m, Torbay Ring Road improvements.
It is thought that the scheme is now moving into an important phase which will see traffic restrictions during the summer period.
Summer Diversions
Due to the nature of the works, service diversions and road traffic restrictions will be in place during the forthcoming summer period.
A regrettable fact of the essential maintenance needed to ensure that the work is carried out in a safe manner.
Set to commence in July
The work is set to commence in July and involves the diversion of a major intermediate pressure gas main.
The work to divert the gas line will start in July and end by October 2018.
The gas supply is vital for the towns of Brixham and South of Paignton and the work needs to be carried out to the live gas main without interrupting the supply.
Once the diversion is in place a new 500m long section of 300mm diameter gas main is due to be laid along the entire length of the site.
Cllr Robert Excell, Executive Lead for Community Services said:
I am pleased to see this challenging scheme progressing, however I also appreciate that the works have caused traffic delays at peak times for which we apologise.
The next phase of the works is pivotal to the construction of the scheme and Wales and West Utilities will be undertaking some technically challenging work to divert this major section of their infrastructure safely and without disrupting their service provision.
I am aware that there have been some issues with the construction of the retaining structure due to unforeseen ground conditions and this has set the scheme back slightly, however I understand that our engineers are working with the contractors to see if there are opportunities to make up some of this time as the works progress.
Complete by July 2019
The entire development is expected to take 12 months and be completed in July 2019.
Once the road widening has been complete there will be 2 lanes of traffic in each direction along the Ring Road between Tweenaway Cross and the new developments at White Rock.
Works on the £3m scheme between Claylands Cross and Wilkins Drive has mainly focused on excavation of the new retaining structures and the diversion of numerous utility company services.
These utility services include BT, Western Power, South West Water and West Utilities (gas) and Virgin media.
The utility company diversions already in place have included works to the main 33Kv electric supplies to Brixham and parts of the South Hams.
Along side this diversions have been set up on several BT and Virgin Media services including fibre optics.
A new 80m long retaining wall has also been constructed which has required around 350 soil nails to be drilled up to 6m into the underlying bedrock.
This has also required over 2000 tons of soil and rock being removed from the site.
