Medway Council apologises for 15 week road closure
The A228 Frindsbury Hill in Strood will be closed for 15 weeks
Medway Council have announced the A228 Frindsbury Hill in Strood will be closed for 15 weeks from Monday, 11 March to allow for the completion of the new Maritime Academy.
The new multi-million pound secondary school, which is a Department for Education organised and funded project, will provide more than 1,000 places and is anticipated to open its doors to pupils this September.
The council said they had negotiated a reduction in the length of the closure by four weeks - from 19 to 15 weeks.
The council apologised to residents for the inconvenience.
The local authority said: "This will not only help meet demand for secondary school places, but could also help reduce the distance of journeys to and from schools for local children."
The next phase of development work is the construction of the entrance along Frindsbury Hill.
"We recognise the frustration"
Cllr Simon Curry, Medway Council’s Portfolio Holder for Climate Change and Strategic Regeneration, said:
"Unfortunately, in this case, a full road closure is the only option left to us by the DfE if the new Maritime Academy School is to open on time.
"The school is essential if we are to keep providing the best education facilities, with adequate capacity, for children in the area.
“A complete closure of a main road is always a last resort and we apologise for the impact on the whole community and all those who use this route for work, school and to access the peninsula.
“We recognise the frustration that is felt by local people but this is a complex project involving many different streams of work and it is better to do this all at once rather than in a piecemeal way."
Cllr Curry added:
“We are conscious of the impact this closure will have on residents and commuters, and to avoid longer closures than necessary we have imposed roadwork restrictions before the closure; this means no other planned roadworks, including by utility companies, can take place in the Frindsbury area until 11 March.”