Nightmare on Salisbury Road — a five day road closure extends to five weeks disrupting traffic across High Barnet
Residents of Salisbury Road could hardly believe their eyes when they saw contractors re-installing white lines and parking bays — the long-promised final task before the re-opening of their road after five miserable weeks of mayhem.
But then a fresh disaster struck – yet another water pipe leading to one of the houses sprang a leak prompting yet another 24-hour delay.
And if that was not enough, a 24-hour delay stretched to three days. Once the water leak was repaired, a nearby house lost power and contractors had to dig a trench across the brand new road.
Resurfacing of Salisbury Road carriageway turned into a prolonged nightmare for householders when catastrophe followed catastrophe and a five-day road closure spiralled into five weeks.
Residents Anna Robins (above, left) and Erica McCormick said they couldn’t wait for the removal of the barriers that have blockaded their road for so long.
“It’s been an absolute pleasure having a traffic-free road, but I fear we might all have withdrawal symptoms when the contractors finally call it a day,” said Ms Robins.
A catalogue of unforeseen events began when hydraulic fluid from a tipper lorry working in Salisbury Road leaked on to Stapylton Road and St Albans Road leading to horrendous traffic jams while sections of the two roads were resurfaced.
While that saga brought traffic around The Spires shopping centre to a halt, the real horror story was unfolding in Salisbury Road itself.
Rather than simply being resurfaced a road dating from the Victorian era required a full carriageway reconstruction because of Transport for London’s insistence that it should be strong enough to continue as a route for the 384-bus service from Edgware to Cockfosters.
But again, there has been another hitch: in view of doubts about the continued stability of the newly resurfaced carriageway a 7.5 tonne weight limit is being imposed on Salisbury Road until at least 31 January 2024.
It was the residents’ fury that their road had become a bus route that initially forced Barnet Council to embark on the work despite warnings that road excavations are best carried out during the summer months.
What turned the excavated road into a quagmire – and then a lake — were days of heavy rain and a succession of leaks in pipes from the water main to individual houses.
Even when the resurfacing had been completed and the white lines were being re-installed, another leak required attention necessitating another delay in the final re-opening of the road.
The council and their contractor, Tarmac Kier Joint Venture, said that they had been working with Affinity Water to find a permanent solution to the leaks – but householders believe that will require the laying of a new water main.
But once the leak water was repaired, a nearby house lost its electricity supply and contractors from UK Power Network proceeded to dig a trench across the newly resurfaced road. An embarrassed employee of Tarmac Kier insisted the two holes would be repaired the following day and the road would finally reopen by 5pm on Friday 1 December.
Such has been the anger of the road’s residents – and continued traffic jams due to temporary traffic lights in Stapylton Road – that the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers visited the site and talked to householders.
Finally, as the delays lengthened, the Council was forced to apologise and admit the error of their ways in a letter to residents:
“The vibration from the machinery on the road surface during the works caused the aged water pipes to leak.”
Residents said this was a statement of the obvious: reconstructing the base of a road surface that was laid 150 years ago was bound to have an impact on the pipes and cables buried below.
Contractors aimed to limit the excavation to 300mm deep so as “not to disturb shallow services” but this was not the reality. Residents up and down the road experienced water shortages and power cuts.
Erica McCormick said that she had been forced to boil her water since 23 November and was still waiting for the all-clear that it was safe to drink.
Ms McCormick said that she and the other residents hadn’t given up their fight to get TfL to re-route the 384 away from Salisbury Road – a route that was introduced in 2020 when the 384 from Edgware to Cockfoster was routed along Alston Road and Salisbury Road.
“We believe Salisbury Road is too narrow for buses and we blame the deterioration in the road and the need for resurfacing on the failure of TfL to listen to local people.
“Because of the 7.5-ton weight limit, buses are banned from Salisbury Road until at least the end of January next year – and if we have our way they will never return.”
Both MP Theresa Villiers and High Barnet Councillor Emma Whysall have promised to take up residents’ concerns with TfL in a fresh attempt to get the 384 re-routed.
8 thoughts on “Nightmare on Salisbury Road — a five day road closure extends to five weeks disrupting traffic across High Barnet”
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I’d just like to point out that, as the 31st January deadline approaches, during the two month long so-called monitoring phase we haven’t seen a single person on-site monitoring the condition of the new road. No one from TFL, the council, Metroline, or even the road re-surfacing firm (who I suspect were glad to see the back of Salisbury Road). Obviously there would have been no point monitoring the road while it was closed (again!) from 25th December to 8th January to fix a gas leak at the Alston Road end.
Without having regularly monitored the new road, surely it will be impossible for them to claim that it’s safe for the buses to start using again?
Let’s hope the buses aren’t allowed to return – especially the new electric 384 buses they’ve been introducing over the past few weeks, becauuse they’re 4 times heavier, taller and wider.
It has been nice having our street back without the buses clattering passed every 10 minutes!
Funnily enough down puller you can get fined for being on the pavement somehow, ludicrous. They need to officially allow pavement parking on the roads that need it.
You were right Graham. The road finally reopened mid afternoon yesterday (1st Dec) and at 8:30pm the first bus appeared, so they’ve decided that they are indeed exempt from the weight restrictions!
Which really doesn’t make any sense at all! The buses single-handedly caused the damage that required the road to be rebuilt in the first place. Therefore the buses are the most likely to put the shallow utilities at risk; which is what the weight limit, in place until 31st January 2024, was intended for.
There are round-alls at both ends of the road indicating the 7 tonne weight restriction (that’s in addition to the existing restrictions that prohibits buses and vehicles weighing 5 tonnes or greater during the hours of 6:30pm – 8am, which the bus schedule has been in direct violation of ever since the route change), so the bus drivers are brazenly driving right passed them!
They did the line markings on Tuesday. Has anyone else noticed that the parking bays are considerably narrower than before? Some cars are going to have to park with their wheels over the white lines! I hope that doesn’t mean the council will start handing out fines? I suspect they’re going to have to come back to redo them 🙂
There are actually already restrictions in place down Salisbury Road (as well as many of the adjacent roads), that prohibits access to buses and vehicles of 5 tonnes or greater during certain hours; as indicated by the yellow signs scattered throughout these side roads.
The various bus route schedules that use these roads are in direct violation of these long-standing weight restrictions.
When I challenged both the council and TFL about this, at first they denied the very existence of the yellow signs. Then when I sent them photographic proof they had to concede that they existed, but to cover their own backs gave me multiple conflicting explanations about what the signs mean, until eventually redefining them as “parking restriction signs”. But they’re quite clearly marked as limiting general access to vehicles of a certain type and weight during certain times of day. I certainly don’t remember there ever being a problem with buses parking overnight down Salisbury Road that got so bad that the council had to put up “parking restriction signs” to stop them!?
interestingly, weight limits on roads apply to heavy goods vehicles, and not busses! ref Alexandra Park Road, with a limit of 7.5ton, and busses of 18ton. https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transparency/freedom-of-information/foi-request-detail?referenceId=FOI-2505-2122
“Note that the weight limit on the road relates to Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) only – this does not include buses”
electric busses are scheduled to arrive on the 384 route before the end of the year.
I hope those at Barnet Council and TFL who were responsible for the original decision to re-route the 384 buses down Salisbury Road, and those responsible for this road rebuilding/resurfacing fiasco, have the decency to hand in their resignations because they’re clearly not up to the job.
If the people responsible get to keep their jobs then history is doomed to repeat itself.
The council’s excuse of “unforeseen events” is a joke because most of us residents could see them coming a mile away!
The whole process has been a complete nightmare and never would have happened had the council and TFL listened to the residents and not sent buses down our road in the first place!
But let’s hope common sense prevails and no bus routes are ever allowed to use Salisbury Road again after the 31st January. Because they’ve not just been the single cause of all of the road damage, they’ve caused numerous other issues.
For example, the vibrations of the buses, even when idling, make our front door vibrate and have caused cracks to appear around our windows; the levels of pollution has noticeable increased down our street, we’ve even had some plants in our front garden die as a result of it; due to how narrow the street is, and how shallow our front gardens are, we’ve lost privacy as 384 passengers tend to gawp in at us through our windows; the bus drivers drive too quickly and are unnecessarily aggressive, beeping their horns or deploying their pneumatic air brakes at all hours of the day, they also bully their way passed other road users or force residents to abort an attempt to park; and the buses cause daily blockages because there’s no where for them, or other road users, to pull in to so cars (and even buses) often have to reverse all the way to the end of the road to make way.