Forum Topic

Kew Bridge Road/Kew Road closure

Reading the little yellow signs on the roads, I now see thar Kew Bridge Road will be closed for several days/nights from Saturday 13th August, and also Kew Road at the junction with Mortlake Road will be closed for longer from Monday 15th August.Whilst I'm aware it isn't legally required, I've seen absolutely no publicity surrounding this apart from the small yellow signs.  How are we supposed to make alternative plans when we don't actually know exactly what the closures mean, how the diversions will work etc ?.I live where Kew Bridge Road meets Brentford High Street, so I can only presume to get home from work (Teddington) I'll have to come up Twickenham Road to Busch Corner then along London Road through Brentford.  Otherwise, I presume, I'll get diverted over Chiswick Bridge (as Kew Road will be closed) then have to go on the A205 towards Chiswick Roundabout, turn left to join the A4 and then go down Ealing Road.  I keep saying presume because there's no publicity.And of course, the never ending TW works are still taking place on London Road/the High Street, coupled with the new set of 'temporary' roadworks about halfway along London Road between Busch Corner and Brentford.  So the closure of Kew Road/Kew Bridge Road will only lead to more queues along London Road.I joke about it, but it is a fact that I cannot remember a time since moving to Brentford/Kew Bridge in September 2002 that there hasn't been roadworks on either the A315, Twickenham Road, Kew Bridge Road or Kew Bridge itself taking place.  It really is beyond a joke.I know CCF is away until 18th August (because I've emailed him directly about the new light sequencing at the Ealing Road junction, which I'm guessing is to avoid potential conflict but come the return of the schools etc. I suspect will create long queues) but why are we reliant upon one person to tell us what the **** is going on with roadworks in the vicinity of Brentford ?.Utter farce :-(

Adam Beamish ● 5112d8 Comments

Poor Chris, as you say, but I guess it's part of his job and he's always been very good at dealing with matters like these or passing them on to the right person at TfL.

Susan Kelly ● 5105d

Poor Chris, I emailed him too about this a week or so ago, he's actually on leave until 18th - things seem to 'fall apart' when he goes away !.

Adam Beamish ● 5105d

Have emailed Chris to see if he can shed any light.

Susan Kelly ● 5106d

I noticed the sudden absence of a left-lane filter at the bottom of Ealing Rd on my way to the Waterman's last Friday. It's just causing unnecessary tailbacks and, as you suggest, I was tempted to cut through McDonald's.Perhaps Chris Calvi-Freeman is the man to help with this?

Susan Kelly ● 5106d

Indeed Susan, and although I haven't approached from Richmond as yet it appears as though Kew Road heading north remains open.  Lots of diversions signs though all along the A315 encouraging traffic through Brentford.  And, as I suspected, the Kew Bridge Road closure, which was the subject of several yellow signs last week saying it would be closed from 13-17th August, hasn't materialised.Suspect someone twigged (long after I did) that closing Kew Road and Kew Bridge Road at the same time wasn't a good idea - which suggests that there isn't enough communication going on between the respective authorities and statutory undertakers (and absolutely no communication with local residents).Going back to the Ealing Road junction, I now see that when the left or right turn from Ealing Road onto the A315 is at green, traffic on the A315 from Brentford can turn left onto Ealing Road.In terms of the increased space available for all users, the junction is a definite improvement, but tampering with the sequencing was totally pointless in my view - I've little doubt drivers will soon be going through McDonalds car park as a short-cut and once the full-blown rush hour returns from September onwards there will be lots of mini-jams just because of daft traffic light sequencing.

Adam Beamish ● 5106d

Driving south over Kew Green, you must then bear left onto the south circular, no straight on to Richmond. Traffic was flowing okay yesterday morning.

Susan Kelly ● 5106d

Yellow signs 'alerting' (as far as a pathetic tiny yellow sign with absolutely no other info) people to the closure of Kew Bridge Road now seem to have disappeared when you drive over Kew Bridge towards the A315 junction, but now there's signs on the A315 heading towards Kew Bridge altering people to Kew Road being closed and, in the other direction, diversion signs ...so presumably all traffic heading towards Richmond via Kew Bridge from Chiswick Roundabout will be diverted through Brentford...Should be fun, especially with the new light phasing at the Ealing Road junction.  I've asked CCF about that, but absurd in my view that whereas before when the green right turn light towards Ealing was displayed drivers could still progress on the A315 into Brentford, or turn left out of Ealing Road onto the A315, now everyone is stuck at red when that green right turn light is on.  I've noticed the same thing seems to happen most of the time at the Chalkers Corner junction when turning left towards Mortlake from Chiswick Bridge, the left arrow filter now rarely goes to green before the rest of the traffic lights.  And I also see this morning we have yet another set of traffic lights on the Great West Road, all of about 250 yards before you get to the Syon Lane junction.  Question now is whether Kew Bridge Road will still be closed, or whether it dawned on some bright spark that closing KBR at the same time as Kew Road was closed might lead to afew 'issues'...Sarcastic round of applause to LBH/LBRUT/TfL for complete lack of advance publicity (with exception of CCF who I know is away, but we shouldn't have to rely on 1 person to keep us informed what's going on).

Adam Beamish ● 5107d

So seemingly no-one knows any more than me, and it's less than 48 hours before Kew Bridge Road is going to be closed for 4 days.  Wonderful...Still getting over the shock of the TW 'temporary' lights actually having now been cleared from near The Island...

Adam Beamish ● 5110d