Major road improvements underway in Lake and Sandown

Major work is underway to improve some of the main stretches of highway serving Sandown and Lake. Island Roads have programmed the works early in the year to avoid the main holiday season and planned to undertake overnight to reduce disruption to road users. The work will also be phased in a further attempt to reduce inconvenience. Work to upgrade The Broadway and Lake Hill (from Ranelagh Road to Station Avenue) began last night (Wednesday 20) and is expected to last around ten nights. Resurfacing works will then commence on the whole length of the High Street and the last untreated stretch of Beachfield Road. This phase will start from the Avenue Road/High Street roundabout and move to the junction of Royal Street. It is expected that this phase will begin around May 3 and last around seven nights. Residents of the roads affected have all received letters giving information on the work and its impact while information boards will also be displayed at the sites prior to work commencing. The Island Roads mobile visitor centre was at the Heights car park on Friday April 15 to explain the first Broadway/Lake Hill work phase and will be at St Johns Road on Friday April 29th from 12 noon to 3pm to focus on the High Street/Beachfield Road aspect of works and to answer questions. To allow the improvements to be undertaken safely and to schedule, the roads will be closed during work and diversions put in place. The work will be undertaken between the hours of 6.30pm and 6am. Pedestrian access to properties and businesses will remain throughout the work. There will be no work during the Bank Holiday during which time the road will remain open at all times. There will however be work over the weekend, 23rd, 24th April. Island Roads construction manager Keith Gourlay said: “This work will bring about a significant improvement to some of the busiest roads in this area. Though we have taken steps to reduce disruption it is inevitable that there will be some given both the nature of the work and because the roads being treated are well-used routes. “We hope that any short-term inconvenience will be outweighed by the improvements our work will deliver to the highways network.”