UPDATE – Underground issues hit Mablethorpe Traffic Signals refurb

Mablethorpe High Street

Hidden utility ducts and cables have been found by the crew working on the High Street upgrade.

With work to refurbish the traffic signals that serve the High Street / Victoria Road junction in Mablethorpe happening at pace, only unforeseen circumstances could slow things down. 

And, as the expert crew were excavating the footways for the extra-low voltage system set to replace the current set-up, one of those unforeseen things has now happened. 

Whilst the excavation was happening, the team found unchartered underground utility ducts and cables encased in concrete.

The discovery has affected the schedule of equipment replacement within various parts of the scheme - which means that a redesign and additional excavation work will be needed. The team will now concentrate on finding suitable and safe locations for the new traffic light signals to be installed. 

Finding those not-mapped elements underground is going to add time to the planned works, too. The original scheduled end-date of December 23 will now be extended to January 20, 2023, as a result.

Cllr Richard Davies, Executive member for Highways said: This is a frustrating development for us whilst we work to improve and refurbish this junction for the people of Mablethorpe. We can only apologise for any additional disruption that the time extension may cause. 

“On any complex scheme like this we are always very clear that, once excavation on site begins, we may find something – or several things – that cause unforeseen issues. As we have found here, those issues can be as serious as utility ducts and cables that aren’t chartered which means that they are effectively hidden from the initial individual survey which we carry out for each job.

“We will now put considerable effort and expertise into coming up with, and carrying out, our alternative signals plan for the area. Once we have this agreed upon, we will be working extremely hard to get the programme of work completed and fully useable for Mablethorpe residents for many years to come. 

“I’d like to thank everyone for their patience whilst we shift the plans accordingly and get these works underway.”

For live information on these and all other live roadworks across the county go to: www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/roadworks.

Published: 5th December 2022