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Extra Congestion in Town Centre Expected to Continue While Roadworks Are Completed
Published on: 20 Oct, 2018
Updated on: 20 Oct, 2018
Traffic congestion in Bridge Street 6.15pm Friday, Oct 19.
Extra traffic congestion in central Guildford will continue into next week (commencing 22 October, 2108) while safety enhancing speed tables are constructed at the Bridge Street/Onslow Street pedestrian crossing point.
One traffic lane is closed in Bridge Street and a temporary pedestrian crossing is in place while the work is carried out.
According to Surrey County Council website traffic marshalls are meant to be in place to:
- assist the control of pedestrians and deliveries within work area at all times and help those crossing the road;
- directing pedestrians to diversion routes;
- help with the night time increase in pedestrians around this area working with the police and bars in the area with regard to queues and keeping pedestrians safe.
But no marshalls could be seen on Friday evening when the images in this article were taken.
Traffic building up in Onslow Street
Bridge Street and Onslow Street will be closed for periods during the works but each road will be closed separately and the closures will be overnight with diversions put in place. From 22 October, for three nights, Bridge Street will be closed from 8pm until 6am.
The work is intended to make the area safer for pedestrians following an incident in 2017 that killed two pedestrians at the station end of Onslow Bridge. A petition raised at the time, calling for the area to be made safer was signed by 12,000 people.
According to the SCC website: “Analysis showed that there was a historic pattern of pedestrian casualties at the crossing points at the junction with Bridge Street and Onslow Street. We looked at several schemes, options and plans to improve safety.
“The key conclusion was that reducing speed by installing raised tables at the crossing points would reduce the risk of collision and severity of accidents.”
SCC’s roadworks roundup:
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Bernard Parke
October 21, 2018 at 12:10 pm
If readers feel that it is bad now I fear they will find it much worse when schemes such as Solum’s redevelopment of the railway station starts.
Sara Tokunaga
October 21, 2018 at 3:26 pm
I would be interested to know how many of the historic accidents, at the crossing between Bridge Street and Onslow Street, took place because a lot of pedestrians chose to ignore the red light telling them not to cross. This is an everyday occurrence.
The raised tables will not ease this menace. Maybe bringing in a jaywalking fine would have been more constructive.
Bridge Street itself is dangerous to walk along, as was proved by the fatal accident, which was not caused by speed and was not near the crossing.
Karen Browne
October 21, 2018 at 4:17 pm
As a local who both walks and drives around the one way system, I witness time and time again pedestrians who attempt to cross when it is not their turn, rather than safety issues being caused by drivers. Perhaps safety barriers to restrain pedestrians from crossing at all until their lights turn green would be more helpful to improve safety.
Steve Chudley
October 22, 2018 at 10:36 pm
Why is this work taking place at the same time as work at the Stoke lights, the Worplesdon Road crossroads at Emmanuel Church and the Old Woking/ Pyrford roundabout heading towards West Byfleet?
Surely Surrey Highways should have some sort of schedule in place so that all these works don’t coincide? Sometimes you get the impression they do it on purpose just to see how much chaos they can cause.
Simon Schultz
October 23, 2018 at 5:16 pm
In response to Karen Browne, maybe the problem is that pedestrians are effectively excluded from this space, and it is made extremely difficult to get anywhere around the railway station/ gyratory/ town centre due to multi-lane roads with few crossing points or useful bridges/underpasses.
Thankfully, we have no jaywalking laws in this country. They are in my opinion an infringement on civil liberty; introduced in the US at the request of the automobile industry, to forestall what was then seen as likely (but would have been bad for their business), the banning of cars from roads due to collisions with pedestrians accustomed to their traditional right to use the road.
It would be much better if the whole area was pedestrianised, and through-traffic removed.
Alistair Smith
October 23, 2018 at 10:04 pm
On the subject of current roadworks, there are also works by the Shell garage on the Portsmouth Road, and work on the A31 Hog’s Back. Are Surrey County Council trying to remove all contact with Guildford from the rest of the Surrey?