Furious villagers in Brent Knoll are up in arms about a series of road closures that have caused months of disruption and hurt the trade of local businesses.
As railway bridge strengthening work on the B3140 is finally completed this week after a three month closure, Somerset County Council has already announced a new set of roadworks for culvert repairs that will shut the route again.
“The B3140 from Berrow to Brent Knoll and East Brent has now been closed three times this year – the first time for ten weeks, then eight weeks closing the link to Brent Knoll, and now, for the past 12 weeks, the railway bridge has been closed for repairs,” local resident Hilary Buitenkamp told Burnham-On-Sea.com.
“Walking down the road this week to see how repairs were progressing, we were horrified to see a sign from Somerset Highways stating that the road was to be closed yet again for four weeks for culvert repairs.”
“This brings the total number of weeks closure to 34 this year, and has added 15 minutes and four miles to my daily journey.”
But County Council spokeswoman Elizabeth Kulh told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “The current work is due to be completed by September 9th.”
“Station Road in Brent Knoll is currently having various work being undertaken with work already completed by Wessex Water and current works ongoing by Network Rail.”
She added: “Following consultation with the local community, future culvert work to be undertaken by County Council’s Bridges Team has been re-scheduled for November so as to minimise disruption to local businesses.”
“Due to the locations of the works being carried out, we were unable to schedule work in one sitting as the nearby properties would have been trapped having no access to the main roads.”
“At the moment, the Network Rail works are on schedule and it is hoped that they will all be completed by September 9th. We apologise for any inconvenience caused but these works were necessary to ensure the safety and maintenance of the bridge structures and drainage for the local community.”
The culvert repairs will close the road from 3rd November until 14th December.
