A3100 Guildford to Godalming Portsmouth Road Re-opened

Published on: 5 Aug, 2025
Updated on: 5 Aug, 2025

Re-opened!

By Martin Giles

August 5, 12.30pm –  The Portsmouth Road has been re-opened six days ahead of deadline. It is believed that the road was re-opened at about 11am.

Barriers still in place at 9.30am today (August 5) around refilled and resurfaced holes outside Ye Olde Ship Inn.

August 5, 9.30am – “Emergency” work to fix an aged leaking gas main outside Ye Olde Ship Inn on the A3100 Portsmouth Road in St Catherine’s, Guildford, appears to have been completed but barriers closing the road remain in place.

A spoil heaped behind a barrier a little further away, by the entrance of the former School of Law, had been removed this morning but the barriers remained in place.

Holes have been filled and the road resurfaced. Spoil that had been collected behind another barrier, on the northbound side of the road, was also cleared this morning while a separate highways crew attended taking advantage of the road closure to complete some patching of nearby potholes and fractured Tarmac.

Gas company SGN, who earlier said the intended to re-open the road by August 11, have been asked for an update.

July 31 – The closure of Portsmouth Road is still confusing some drivers who, disregarding the “road closed” signs, continue on to the barrier before having to turnaround.

Signs have also been erected on nearby Guildown Road warning of a road closure commencing August 11 while Dragon readers have also reported impending roadworks on Broadford Road, between Peasmarsh and Shalford, and Kings Road in Shalford.

UK Power Network vans appeared by the roadworks yesterday. One of their workers said that the gas repair roadworks had revealed a “dodgy” electrical cable that also required attention.

The excavations photographed at 4.26pm on Wednesday, July 30.

The 42, 70, 71 and 72 bus services on the affected part of the Portsmouth Road have been temporarily suspended for the duration of the road works. One reader has reported that bus websites were not necessarily up to date with this information.

More traffic lights have appeared at the junction of Guildown Road for other roadworks.

Another sign informs drivers that Ye Olde Ship Inn in St Catherine’s remains open for business. A member of staff at the pub said that it had not been warned about the emergency roadworks.

July 30 – Southern Gas Network has told The Dragon today that the roadworks that have closed the Portsmouth Road were postponed earlier this month because of an error with their application for the necessary road permits.

A spokesperson for the company said that subsequently: “We carried out a safety check to make sure the old gas main was safe to leave until we returned in the future, and that’s when we found a leak.

“The gas main runs beneath the middle of the road, so we have to close the whole road to do it safely.”

The discovery of a leak meant that the situation was deemed an emergency, allowing the work to commence on Monday (July 28) as originally scheduled.

No local resident has come forward in response to a social media request from The Dragon NEWS to say that there had been any smell of gas in the area and, given that the work commenced exactly when originally planned, there is some scepticism that the gas company has been completely honest.

Simon Collins, of SGN, said: “We were due to start work to upgrade the gas network in Portsmouth Road area of Peasmarsh this week, however, an error with our application for road permits meant that we were not able to begin our upgrade work as planned.

“As the gas main runs directly beneath the centre of the road, to keep road users and our engineers safe, a full road closure is necessary to carry out these works.

“In addition, this road is part of the local school commute, therefore these works must be carried out during the summer holiday period to reduce disruption as much as possible. This meant it could have been some time before we were able to return to carry out our essential project.

“After further investigations this week, to ensure the old gas main remained safe until we could return, we identified a leak. Our team of specialist engineers concluded that it would be less disruptive to replace the gas main now under an emergency road closure, than to try and fix this leak, only to have to return again in the future and close the road a second time.

“This will not only ensure a safe and reliable gas supply for the local community for many years, but will also prevent future unplanned disruption.

“We appreciate that there has been confusion around these works, and we are sorry for the inconvenience this will cause. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we expect to complete the work and reopen the road by 11 August.”

July 28 – “Emergency” road works which have closed the busy A3100 Portsmouth Road, between Guildford and Godalming, have commenced without warning today. The road could be closed for two weeks.

It is claimed that advance notice was not possible because of the emergency nature of the gas repair work but the location of the work is the same location where work was expected to begin on exactly the same day, July 28, before it was suddenly postponed two weeks ago.

See: Roadworks Planned for Portsmouth Road Postponed

Other roadworks are taking place at the Portsmouth Road-Lawn Road junction where traffic lights are in operation.

Map showing location of Sandy Lane and Portsmouth Road – precisely the location where work was previously announced only for it to be postponed at the last minute.

Southern Gas Networks have said: “Our engineers are on site at the A3100 Portsmouth Road.

“The road was closed on the morning of 28 July following a gas leak, and we’re currently carrying out investigations to help us decide the best way to repair out network.

“We expect the road to be closed for around two weeks.”

A worker at the site said a smell of gas at the bottom of Sandy Lane had triggered emergency action. When it was pointed out by a local resident that there was no smell of gas now, nor had there been yesterday, he responded: “Well it’s worse in the morning.”

But a trusted Surrey County Council source told The Guildford Dragon NEWS: “It may not be the case here, but SCC is increasingly concerned that utility companies are claiming works are emergencies (which SCC can’t refuse) when it’s actually routine work.”

The works viewed from Sandy Lane, which has also been closed to through traffic.

An SCC spokesperson told The Dragon: “The permit for the previously planned major works (by SGN) was revoked a couple of weeks back. Those works are postponed – no change on that front.

“But there are two emergency/immediate works taking place on this road. Legislatively, in the event of an emergency, or a situation where they decide unplanned works must be started immediately such as a burst water main or gas leak, or loss of supplies to premises etc., utility companies can notify as late as two hours after work starts. A permit is still required but can’t be refused.

“On this occasion these were not works we had prior knowledge of.”

Details of the works as given by SCC are:

• SGN emergency works on Portsmouth Road near the junction with Sandy Lane outside Ye Olde Ship inn. The duration is from today to August 5 and taking place under a road closure.

There are also roadworks near the junction of the Portsmouth Road and Lawn Road

• UKPN works on Portsmouth Road near the junction with Lawn Road. These are immediate works carried out by UKPN to ensure safe and reliable power supplies in the area. A Streetworks officer has requested manual control of temporary traffic signals from 7am to 7pm for duration of works including Saturday to help manage traffic flow, maximise throughput, and prevent queues from building back into Guildford. The officer has also visited the site and confirmed the arrangements on the ground. We will continue to monitor the site regularly to ensure everything is progressing as planned.

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