Contractor Fined After Acton Lane Roadworks Fiasco
Road had been closed due to previous arrangement being ruled unsafe
The road opened on Monday evening
October 31, 2023
Acton Lane has reopened between Chiswick Park station and the High Road giving hope of some relief to the congestion that has plagued the area recently.
The project to lay electricity cables to new buildings on Essex Place was partially completed this Monday evening (30 October) one day behind schedule due to the heavy rain.
Work will continue on the footpath near the zebra crossing on Bollo Lane until Wednesday 1 November with no road or lane closures required.
Hounslow Council has said that OCU Group, the contractor working for the utility company SSE has been issued a fixed penalty notice for failure to erect adequate advance warning signs.
The works began on Saturday 21 October with one-way closures as originally planned. However, Hounslow Council were receiving complaints about drivers ignoring the directional closure and abusing workers who remonstrated with them.
A Hounslow Highways’ Street Works Manager was on site on Wednesday and Thursday last week to review the situation and the decision to close the road was made on Thursday afternoon in agreement with the contractor. The council says this was done for the safety of road users, site workers, shoppers accessing the Sainsbury’s Store and residents. This decision coincided with the suspension of District Line services by TfL for planned engineering works and resulted in significant congestion across Chiswick for the next five days.
The earlier closure at the roundabout near the entry to Sainsbury's
Even after the closure, drivers appeared to be confused by the signage with many turning up Acton Lane from Chiswick High Road and either making a u-turn or continuing through the Sainsbury’s car park which had just had its barriers removed due to the implementation of a new ANPR enforced parking regime.
We have contacted SSE for comment but are yet to receive a response.
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