15 December - Bucking the trend, the little job that has been completed on time
There
has been a good deal of scepticism locally about the likelihood of Overton Road
(Abbey Wood) being opened before Christmas but the job has gone exactly to schedule.
The anticipated five weeks of closure will expire next Friday and the job is
basically done with just a bit of tarmac to be put down while the concrete
cures. Godstow Road was reopened two days ahead of schedule.
Overall the Harrow Manorway rebuild has not gone so well and Crossrail has to
take some of the blame. The flyover reconstruction was held up more than a year
ago because the station forecourt hadn’t been cleared, in fact it wasn’t until
the day before the new station opened, but that was a long time ago and doesn’t
really explain why the flyover is still in a mess more than a year later.
Problems with the bridge joints are blamed but surely they should have been
surveyed before the job commenced. Instead we have seen the road resurfaced and then dug up again.
Similarly the design of the bridge parapet was changed during construction.
The bus stops are not ready, neither is the pedestrian crossing and some of the
lights don’t work so the very recent Bexley Council forecast that everything
will be finished during the coming week looks like fiction.
Down below in Gayton Road things are looking quite good but once again many
months behind schedule however once again Crossrail can be blamed because
Network Rail didn’t clear their site until June or July. They only cleared out of Felixstowe
Road to the north of the railway line a month or two ago.
Bexley Council was never likely to cover itself in glory with such a large
project, their track record for delay and design incompetence is well known, from memory
Sidcup High
Street ran eleven months late, but in Abbey Wood not everything is their fault.
By the way, at last week’s Council meeting they were talking about reopening the
Felixstowe Road car park. Earlier in the year the talk was of turning it into a
cycle hub - whatever that might be.