Update on pedestrianisation project

Welcome to our second newsletter, which you subscribed to in our latest consultation survey to receive regular news and updates on our pedestrianisation project for Braintree town centre.

Braintree District Council has continued to deliver front line services since the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown. We want to reassure you that we have also continued to work behind the scenes to ensure this project moves ahead during these unprecedented times.

This newsletter will give you an update on the planned enabling works to Bank Street, which will start week commencing 27th April 2020, as well as planned works to Fairfield Road and St Michael’s Lane, which will be starting soon. These works are part of the exciting pedestrianisation project planned for Braintree town centre, which will create a new space that people want to visit and socialise.

Trial holes

We recently completed the trial holes in High Street to establish ground conditions.

Contractor appointed

We have now appointed local Essex contractor Marlborough Highways to deliver the enabling works on behalf of Braintree District Council, Essex County Council and Department of Transport.

Bank Street works

From Monday 27th April, the contractor will be starting the planned construction work on Bank Street which will provide an increased number of disabled bays available for people in the town centre.

This will mean that Bank Street bays will be increased to 17 disabled parking spaces in total (currently seven) and an additional three on St Michael’s Lane.

These works are enabling us to ensure there is no loss of disabled parking spaces whilst the main pedestrianisation works in Market Place, Great Square and the High Street take place from May 2020.

We have considered the impact of COVID-19 on the project and our contractor will be ensuring that they reflect the new ways of working to comply with the current industry government guidance. Suitable PPE will be provided by the contractor to support their workers on the site.

Advanced signage will also be placed on site.

We expect these works to take place for 2-3 weeks and will be completed during the day, evenings and weekends. A one way traffic system on Bank Street will be in place with access via Sainsbury’s, Swan Side entrance into Bank Street.

We are working with our contractor to ensure local residents, businesses and other stakeholders are informed of these works.

What’s the next steps?

Once Bank Street works have been completed, we will look to start enabling works at St Michael’s Lane and Fairfield Road. We will update you on this phase of the project soon including more details on when works will start to commence.

We are currently working up the final designs for the project along Market Place, Great Square and the High Street, building in your feedback from the consultation. We will share these with you as soon as we have the final design.