Pickering Roadworks to be Finished Before Bank Holiday

Friday, 21 May 2021 15:14

By Matthew Pells

Reassurances have been given that work to replace gas pipes in the centre of Pickering will be completed as soon as possible – before the May bank holiday weekend – and disruption will be kept to a minimum.

Northern Gas Networks (NGN) is replacing pipework under the road near the roundabout junction of the A170 and A169.

North Yorkshire County Council’s highways area manager, Richard Marr said:

“NGN took the decision to replace old metal pipework that is reaching the end of its life to ensure that they can deliver a safe and reliable supply of gas to customers,”

“In our role assisting in coordinating this work we instructed NGN to inform owners of all premises in the affected area in advance and to erect advance warning signs, as well as ‘keep clear’ signs to help to maintain access to businesses and car parks.

“We understand that the current work is causing inconvenience, so we are doing all we can to ensure NGN keeps this disruption to a minimum. Temporary traffic lights at the junction are manually controlled by operatives, who are in contact with each other. This enables them to minimise delays.

“We have emphasised the need for the works to be off-site before the bank holiday weekend at the end of May, and NGN has confirmed this will be achieved.”

NGN began this scheme in October and completed the first pipe connection of the work at the roundabout in February. They needed to return to complete the second connection as soon as possible, because that has an impact on other work in the area.

County Councillor Greg White, Member for Pickering, said:

“There is never a good time to do work of this sort. Our highways team will always do their best to ensure that such work is done quickly and with minimum disruption.”