Improvement works at Roman Bank in Skegness have been delayed beyond Easter after it was found that a gas pipe needs diverting.
The busy road in the seaside town of Skegness had first closed in August 2020 to replace the worn out carriageway on Roman Bank, as well as improving footpaths and drainage.
A full road closure was put in place between the junction with Burgh Road/Castleton Boulevard and just past the junction with Elmhirst Avenue, around 550m of road.
Work is continuing on major improvements to Skegness’ Roman Bank. | Photo: LCC
This was expected to take around eight months to complete, and alternating one-way road closures were introduced by Lincolnshire County Council on Monday, March 8.
Now, work will have to be pushed back as a result of an unexpected gas pipe diversion that needs to take place.
The diversion route will remain via the A52 / C541 / A158 at the Gunby dual carriageway, and vice versa.
Roman Bank in Skegness. Photo: Lincolnshire County Council
Cllr Richard Davies, executive member for highways, was frustrated at finding out about the gas pipe without being told by Cadent Gas.
He said: “Despite originally telling us that their gas pipe did not need to be diverted whilst we were planning the project just a few months ago, Cadent Gas have now notified us that they will need to move their Roman Bank pipe – putting back the completion date of the whole scheme.
“There are always unknowns when carrying out major road works like these, but contradicting information from utility companies makes it almost impossible to plan effectively.
“We’re currently considering a number of options for the rest of the project, each with a different completion date.
“But we want to finish the rest of our works as quickly as we can, with as little disruption as possible for the people and businesses of Skegness.”
Cllr Davies continued: “Had we known this main needed to be diverted when we originally spoke to Cadent Gas during the planning stage, these could have been factored in to the scheme of works.
“The issue with them coming to us now is that the road here is already dug up, so it’s too late to do anything else except wait for their works to finish so we can finish rebuilding the road.
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A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
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