Parish of Beech

Highways Condition Report 2007.

Prepared: Highways and Footpaths Panel Chairman: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cllr Ian Gibson BEng CEng MICE	Date: . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Approved: Parish Council meeting 17 September 2007 Chairman:.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cllr Ed Neish	Date: . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Observations

· Basingstoke Road

· Medstead Road

· Kings Hill

· Abbey Road

· Wellhouse Road

· Snode Hill

· Wivelrod Road

· Bentworth Road

3. General Recommendations

Appendix - Photographs

1. Introduction

The purpose of this report is to record the general condition of the public highways in the Parish of Beech. It follows on from similar work carried out in February 2004.

The report has been prepared by the Highways and Footpaths Advisory Panel of Beech Council under the guidance of IK Gibson BEng CEng MICE and is based on observations made between July and September 2007. It was discussed in detail by the Panel at their meeting on Monday September 10, 2007 and submitted to the full Parish Council meeting on September 17, 2007.

The observations are listed by Road with photographs included in the Appendices for illustrative purposes.

Recommendations are given in Section 3.

2. Observations

Basingstoke Road

(From the bottom of Whitedown Lane to Medstead Road)

1. The road surface is in good condition.

2. Road drainage provision is poor. Midway between Whitedown Lane and Medstead Road junction the vertical alignment is very flat with the road gullies set higher than the channel line and as a consequence large puddles form on the inside of the curve in storm conditions. These extend out into the vehicle path resulting in wheel splash over large lengths of the adjacent cycleway/footpath. This is inconvenient and a danger for pedestrians.

3. At the Medstead Road junction the road gullies are frequently chocked with gravel debris. As of September 2007 these had not been cleared since the storm earlier in July and now include gravel chippings following more recent surface dressing work. It should be noted that the gravel debris originates from Wellhouse Road and Medstead Road at up to 1km from this location.

4. The two most critical gullies are on the north bound side which is a low point on the A339 vertical alignment. As a consequence large puddles form in storm conditions which can extend over the full width of the carriageway in extreme events. This creates a serious safety hazard.

5. The visibility splays on the outside of the curve opposite the Medstead Road junction are significantly below normal standards due to insufficient routine verge maintenance. This also creates a danger for pedestrians who have to cross the road at this location.

Medstead Road

(From Basingstoke Road to Kings Hill)

6. The recent surface dressing work has improved the general condition of the wearing surface.

7. The surfacing is breaking up along the line of a service trench just before the junction with the A339. This has been partially covered by the recent surface dressing but is now reappearing.

8. The edge of Bitmac is beginning to break up on the south side due to surface water erosion. This was noticeably worsened by the storm event on July 20^th this year.

9. There are two brick protection walls at BT cover locations near the bottom of Snode Hill on the inside of the bend. These are higher than necessary to protect the cover and form an obstruction to good forward visibility for westbound traffic.

10. The ‘Slow’ markings and coloured surface bands are worn.

11. A number of road gullies are full of gravel debris. This is most noticeable on the westbound side of the road from Snode Hill up to the entrance to Bushy Lease Woods and has been an ongoing issue for a number of years. We are unclear as to whether these gullies actually lead to soakaways and if so whether the soakaways are effective.

12. A number of road grips exist along the stretch fronted by The Forestry Commission land. Some of these appear to be functional but a significant proportion has entrances blocked by gravel and other debris.

13. The road surface is breaking up locally at service trench positions just west of the entrance to Bushy Lease Woods.

Kings Hill

14. The recent surface dressing has improved the general surface condition.

15. There is the onset of surface water erosion to the verge at intermittent locations. This is most noticeable on the north side of the road.

16. The grips on the steep section of Kings Hill after the main length of housing are in poor condition with blocked entrances.

Abbey Road

(From Kings Hill to the junction with Wivelrod Road)

17. The Abbey Road grips are generally in good condition and appear to be functional.

Wellhouse Road

(From Medstead Road to Hillside Farm and including part of Bridge Path 704 used by motor vehicles)

18. Bridle Path 704 has been severely eroded by storm runoff. In particular a severe storm occurred on Friday 20 July following a period of extremely wet weather. This resulted in overland flows across the fields of Thedden Farm which spilled onto and over Bridle path 702 (from Wellhouse Road to Thedden Grange). This scoured bridle path 704 sufficient to make this impassable to motor vehicles. This was repaired immediately following the storm so as to reinstate access for the occupiers and the full extent of the damage is not now visible.

19. The natural path for the water runoff from the lower part of bridleway 704 is by way of an historic channel across the rear garden of Old Farm and into the adjacent property known as Charleston. This channel has functioned well for many years under normal flow conditions. The July storm flow followed the natural stream route but deposited considerable quantities of stones along the ditch as it crosses Old Farm and Charleston. These deposits caused overland flow across the gardens of Old Farm and partial blockage of the channel at Charleston.

20. The channel discharges onto Wellhouse Road at the drive entrance to Charleston. During the July storm event the water issued from the channel onto Wellhouse Road in sufficient quantity and force to scour the opposite road bank as shown on the attached photograph 17.

21. Wellhouse Road has been provided with a concrete edge channel detail from Charleston to a grated culvert under the road into an old dell area where storm water soaks away. This is insufficient to deal with the volumes of water from extreme events and the verge behind is becoming eroded.

22. The field runoff from the July storm continued down Wellhouse Road and was undoubtedly augmented by further flows from the road itself and adjacent properties. This has lead to severe edge scour and erosion of the verges all the way down Wellhouse Road to the junction with Medstead Road. Photos 4 to 13.

Snode Hill

23. The surface is breaking up at service trench locations. This is most evident at the bend just off Medstead Road and half way up the hill.

Wivelrod Road

(From Snode Hill at the junction with Bentworth Road to Thedden Farm)

24. This road surface is generally in good condition. There is some minor breakup of surfacing along the BT trench.

Bentworth Road

(From the junction with Wivelrod Road to near Heathcroft Farm)

25. This road has been surfaced dressed recently and is in generally good condition.

26. There are two locations where storm runoff has eroded the verge forming a vertical drop at the edge of the Bitmac paved surface. At a location approximately 100m from the junction with Wivelrod Road a hole formed nearly 1m deep about 0.3m from the paved edge. At the location near the parish boundary the hole is about 0.6m deep but also undercuts the road to a noticeable extent. Both locations are obscured by verge vegetation and form a significant hazard. A vehicle wheel running off the paved surface at either location would result in vehicle damage.

3. Recommendations

The following are our recommendations for action by the Highway Authority.

Item	Recommended Work	Priority
2	Install ‘Beany Block’ or similar kerb drainage system over two lengths of approximately 10m each to remove the local surface flooding on the A339 Basingstoke Road.	Before winter 2007.
3 and 4	Clean gullies and associated pipes to field ditch behind. Institute a regular cleaning programme.	Immediate
5	Cut verge vegetation immediately and on a more regular basis.	Ongoing
7, 23 and 13	Repair breaking Bitmac at edge of service trenches.	Medium term
8 and 15	Monitor road edge erosion and repair in due course.	Medium term
9	Cut down height of brick walls to level of verge behind.	Short term
10	Reinstate coloured markings.	Short term
11	Clear blocked gullies. Investigate whether these are functioning to soak away or other disposal point.	Before winter 2007.
12 and 16	Maintenance clearing of road grips	Before winter 2007.
18 and 19	The runoff from the Thedden Farm fields is the primary source of the flood flows at the upper end of Wellhouse Road. This is the source of the water that eroded Bridlepath 704 and resulted in silt and stones blocking the drainage routes across the gardens and rendered the bridleway track impassable to vehicles. The ownership of Bridle path 704 is not known and may by default be public highway. Recommend that the legal situation be clarified and that the Highway Authority instigates discussions with the adjoining landowners.	Immediate
20	The only practical method of alleviating this problem would appear to be reducing the rate of surface water runoff from the farm fields upstream of Bridleway 704. One solution would be to form shallow attenuation basins within the headland strip on the two relevant fields which would, of necessity, remove a small amount of land from arable production. This would require the consent and cooperation of Mr David Saunders who presently owns Thedden Farm. We recommend that this option is investigated.	Immediate
21	Reinforce the concrete edge detail on Wellhouse Road. The single gully on Wellhouse road works reasonably well under most conditions but appears to have been overwhelmed by the flood flows on this occasion. Reducing the flow rate off the farm fields will allow this drain to function correctly.	Medium term
22	Repair the broken and damaged Bitmac along the full length of the north side of Wellhouse Road. Investigate means of providing additional surface water disposal or attenuation areas along Wellhouse Road. Such works would appear to require land currently in private ownership and the consent and cooperation of certain property owners would be necessary as there are only a few practical locations mainly on the LHS going down the road.	Short term Immediate
26	Infill two holes in the verge at edge of carriageway on the Bentworth Road including compacted granular or similar material under the carriageway itself and large stone (or gabion) works to prevent future scour at these locations.	Immediate
22	Recent development has exacerbated runoff rates onto the public highway as more hard surfaced areas are being included in new development or added to existing properties. These areas frequently discharge onto the highway rather than to disposal within the properties themselves. We strongly recommend that the Planning Authority requires greater detail of storm water disposal prior to grant of Planning permission. At the very least the Highway Authority should request that a specific condition is included in all grants of Planning permission to restrict surface runoff onto public highways. We recommend that, where possible, enforcement action is taken to limit surface water runoff from private properties onto the public highway.	Immediate Ongoing.