South Gloucestershire Council has announced that survey work on Gipsy Patch Lane for the Cribbs Patchway MetroBus Extension (CPME) project will begin on Monday 26th June.
The work area will be located between Station Road and the Gipsy Patch Lane/Hatchet Road Roundabout (see plan for survey extents).
The work will involve using ground penetrating radar (GPR) equipment to scan the road. Radar waves will go through the ground and identify where underground utilities, such as gas and water pipes, are located. No digging will be involved. The equipment that will be used is not noisy, so any disturbance to local residents will be minimal.
Some of the survey area is on verges and not on the carriageway and this will be undertaken during the day, which is anticipated to take seven working days.
The rest of the survey work will be on the carriageway – this has been planned to take place when it will cause the least disruption and will therefore be carried out overnight between 7.30pm and 5am on three to four weeknights. There will be a requirement to close one lane at a time to undertake the carriageway survey and therefore temporary traffic lights will be used (during the above times only). Vehicles will still be able to travel in both directions but will be controlled by the traffic lights.
The council says that three full weekend closures of Gipsy Patch Lane (at the railway bridge), originally planned for April/May, have had to be postponed. They will, however, still go ahead at a later date.
A GPR survey of the Hatchet Road section of the CPME route was undertaken in February. Further investigations, involving the digging of trial trenches, were carried out in early June.
Image: Indicative artist’s impression of CPME proposals on Gipsy Patch Lane (looking east).
More info: Cribbs Patchway MetroBus Extension (The Journal)
Source: South Gloucestershire Council via Stoke Gifford Parish Council
