£32m Oxfordshire road investment scheme continues during lockdown

The first phase of this year’s £32m road repair programme, surface dressing, has just finished. This technique improves the road surface and provides waterproofing which extends the life of the road.

In the last month the team have:

- Resurfaced an area equivalent to 80 Wembley pitches

- Improved 110 miles of road

- Worked 19 shifts making the most of the good weather

- Used 11,000 tonnes of stone and 1.1 million litres of binder material

Super Sunday of surfacing

One day was lost to bad weather, but the team made up for that with what they called “Super Sunday” on April 19 where they completed work on five sites, equivalent of just under 6.5 miles.

County Cllr Liam Walker, cabinet member for highway delivery and operation, said: “The impressive figures speak for themselves and I would like to thank the teams that have been out making the most of the good weather to help improve Oxfordshire’s roads and keep them safe.”

Crews coached for social distancing

Safe working is always right at the top of the agenda for the county council and its contractors, but during the current coronavirus pandemic the teams have been using a novel way to maintain social distancing.

A coach was used for the surface dressing project to bolster the vehicle fleet to get crews to and from site safely. This large vehicle can carry up to twelve workers allowing them to maintain the required 2m distance at all times.

It provided enough capacity so that other workers can get around in other vans and trucks individually so that distancing is maintained.

County Cllr Liam Walker added: “Keeping safe and keeping well has never been more important and that applies to everyone who is working hard under really difficult circumstances right now.

“The usual trucks and vans aren’t cramped, but there’s no way workers can maintain their distances in them, and in many circumstances it’s not practical to use lots of vehicles to get the crews to site.”

Work to deliver the county council’s massive spring and summer list of repairs is continuing.

*A message from the Banbury Guardian Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper when you do your weekly shop.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.