Lessons learned from disruption caused by roadworks across Bedford says senior officer

Lessons have been learnt from disruption caused by roadworks across Bedford Borough, a senior council officer has said.

The Environment and Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee heard yesterday (Thursday, November 17) that the council has carried out a “vast amount” of work on the road network over recent years.

Matthew D’Archambaud, chief officer for transport, highways and engineering services, said: “There’s no way that we can invest that amount of money in our network without some disruption.

“Unfortunately, I know it’s bit of a glib excuse, but we do hope it is short-term pain for long-term gain,” he said.

“But yes, we could have done some different bits and pieces better.

“An awful lot of [learning] has gone into how we plan and programme those works.

“But sometimes we do find that pipes burst or other bits of pieces need to beaddressed [urgently], but we do try to be as fleet of foot as possible and apply lateral thought in those instances to try and move things around to keep disruption to a minimum.

“We do work really, really hard to make sure we minimise disruption,” he said.

Committee chair, councillor Kay Burley (Labour, Kempston Central & East), asked how much control the council has over the different utility companies that are digging up roads.

She added that there is a public perception that the council is to blame for the disruption caused by these works.

Mr D’Archambaud replied: “It’s a balancing act, we have a statutory duty to run a safe and efficient highways network.

“But we are duty-bound, certainly in emergency circumstances, to allow statutory undertakers access to their plant, access to all the pipes and other bits and pieces that are buried under the ground.

“So it is very difficult.

“In some instances, we do find that there are legitimate emergencies and other times they do like to use the emergency as an excuse to get to do some work.

“But we do enforce against them, there are bits and pieces that we do to try and hold them to account, but it is a balancing act,” he said.

The council’s website has an interactive map of roadworks across the borough.