Road closure due to water mains work set to have major impact

A road closure of almost four weeks between a North Yorkshire town and a nearby village for water mains work will have a major impact, community leaders say.

The B6271 between Richmond and Brompton-on-Swale is scheduled to be shut between July 21 and August 15.

The full closure has been authorised to allow Yorkshire Water to complete a £580,000 project to replace 1.4km of water mains to improve the reliability of the network.

Jon Lemoine, senior project manager at Yorkshire Water, said: “Replacing the mains in this area will improve the reliability of drinking water supply, reduce leakage and prevent water main bursts, which have been a problem in this area – ultimately helping us to deliver a better service for our customers.”

Contractors from United Living will begin the project on July 7.

Richmond Road will be closed from east of Brompton Lakes to just east of the Parkgate Lane Entrance with diversions in place from July 21.

Mr Lemoine added: “We don’t take the decision to close roads lightly, but in this case, it is absolutely necessary in order for us to complete this important work. We understand that this closure will be particularly disruptive, and we’d like to assure customers that we’ll be working quickly and doing everything that we can to minimise that disruption. We thank everyone in the area for their patience in advance.”

Local community leaders have been notified of the closure.

Richmond town councillor Ian Woods said: “The closure will have a major impact on people who work in Brompton and Northallerton and live in Richmond, and vice versa.  In addition, people with hospital appointments at the Friarage Hospital or need train services from Northallerton are going to have to factor in a lot of extra time.”

Richmond division councillor Stuart Parsons said he had asked for the closure to be limited to overnight but was told this was not possible.
“They said that wasn’t possible due to the size of the engineering work that has to be carried out. It will probably lead to tailbacks but drivers can use the A1 relief road to get between Richmond and Brompton so that should help. We’ll have to wait and see.”

The project is expected to be completed in September.

The work forms part of a £406m investment to replace more than 1,000km of water mains across the region over the next five years.