Our Year in Aylesbury Vale

15,925 gullies emptied, 1,361,673 sqm urban grass cut, 9,204 defect repairs, 9,087 spray injection patching repairs, 80 gritting runs.

“2018-19 got off to a difficult start because of the extremely tough winter, which saw us dealing with snow events all the way up to March. We estimated a 300% increase in pothole defects following the cold weather, which was measured from reported defects and routine inspections.

Getting on top of that was a big challenge for the team at Aylesbury, who have to cover the largest portion of the county, but I’m really proud of what they’ve achieved; namely, completing a backlog of over 1400 potholes whilst delivering the plane and patch programme both within budget and on schedule.

We also saw the biggest resurfacing scheme in the county in our area, on the Stoke Hammond Bypass, which required closures and diversions for 8 weeks, having an impact on the nearby network. Yet again, the team here made the best of it and worked with the CMP team to collaborate and use the road closures to carry out maintenance work on one of the busiest routes in the north of the county.”

-        Calvin Richardson, Area Manager, Aylesbury 

Long term improvements in 2018-19:

In focus: Stoke Hammond Bypass, July 2018

The biggest scheme of the whole Capital Maintenance Programme, the resurfacing of the A4146 which bypasses Linslade and Stoke Hammond Village, took place between July – September. During the eight-week project, the teams laid around 25,000 tonnes of surfacing material over 140,000 square metres of road - the equivalent area of 13 football pitches.

The work involved removing the entire original surface course, which had a number of defects and, in areas where investigations found structural weakness, replacing some of the lower layers. The new surface - hard-wearing hot rolled asphalt with chippings - is impermeable, and will seal the structure of the road and extend its life.

The newly surfaced Stoke Hammond A4146 bypass, July 2018

Stoke Hammond bypass, resurfaced by Transport for Buckinghamshire, July 2018

Some of the bypass soft verge areas were stiffened using recycled 'planings' from the old surface, which will aid drainage. While the bypass was closed, other teams took the opportunity to clear litter, maintain lighting and safety barriers, clean road signs, clear drains and central reservation debris, and cut back foliage. 

The response to the scheme, which had suffered some setbacks, was overwhelmingly positive; Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member Mark Shaw commented at the time;

"This is Buckinghamshire's biggest resurfacing scheme for many years, and my thanks go to the team who made it all happen - a great feat of planning and execution.”

In Brief: New signals for historic Brownlow Canal Bridge, Ivinghoe

Brownlow Canal Bridge, a grade II listed structure from 1800, is a key fixture in the road network through Ivinghoe. TfB refurbished the 1980s traffic signals for the bridge in October 2018, installing new extra low voltage equipment with LED signal heads to reduce energy consumption, new traffic sensors and control system for improved operation, and updated infrastructure for better and safer future maintenance and repairs.

The work was programmed to avoid conflict with the Stoke Hammond bypass scheme because of an overlapping diversion route, and tree and hedge cutting was carried during road closure to improve visibility of the traffic signals. Councillor Anne Wight commented:

“Thanks also for keeping me apprised of the timing of the works, and you have my heartfelt gratitude for finishing them on time!  It’s been a tricky few weeks around our division, so it’s great to be able to let the villages know when works are completed on schedule.”

Upgraded signals and traffic sensors for Brownlow Canal Bridge, Ivinghoe

In Brief: Improvements to Stoke Road Bridge reduce traffic noise
In August the TfB closed Stoke Road Bridge in Aylesbury overnight to make some improvements. The panels of the temporary bridge were retightened to reduce the noise generated when traffic travels over the bridge, while some pedestrian guardrails were replaced, vegetation cut back, and some damaged hazard markers replaced. This was a good example of collaboration between TfB teams to reduce the impact of works by carrying them out overnight, and different teams using the same road closure to get work done.

Retightening the panels on the temporary bridge, Stoke Road Aylesbury

In Brief: Stewkley drainage improvements win approval from residents
Last summer TfB worked closely with residents on Tythe Gardens, Stewkley, to design a solution to flooding and drainage problems on the cul-de-sac. The work involved running new pipe work under one of the residents’ driveways – despite the disruption, all the residents were delighted with the end result and the improved drainage, and particularly praised the team carrying out the work, writing to us afterwards:

“Your work force has been extremely courteous helpful and above all very polite... I am very pleased with the road surface outside my house and the quality of workmanship that they are providing. I think that they are a credit to Bucks County Council.”

Stewkley drainage works, in progress and after

The year in brief across the whole county:

Following a very tough winter in 2017-18, which resulted in a sharp increase in defects, TfB began 2018-19 by delivering a £2 million plane and patch programme countywide. The work began as soon as the weather got milder in late March, and was organised with local Members to decide on the roads and sites to repair.

The capital maintenance programme (major works such as resurfacing) was mainly carried out over the summer months – over 120km (or 796,000sqm) of road resurfacing was laid; 3,295 old style streetlights were upgraded to LED and 100 solar powered bollards were installed. 23 major drainage improvement schemes were carried out, as were: 10 structures schemes; nine road safety schemes, and five Intelligent Transport Systems (i.e. signals) schemes.

In total, 38,000 gullies were emptied, over 20,000 defects were repaired and over 3 million square metres of grass was cut. The gritting season started unseasonably early on the 26^th October and lasted well into April, but – while long – the winter was milder overall. 

Read more: Our Year in Chiltern and South Bucks, and Our Year in High Wycombe and surrounding areas.