A5086 resurfacing, Peppercoats Brow, Cumbria

The project was completed 1 day ahead of schedule by deploying additional resources to work in parallel to minimise disruption.

The project scope

The scheme involved the resurfacing of the busy A5086 road between Cockermouth and Egremont in Cumbria, which is a busy commuter route to the Sellafield nuclear site in West Cumbria. The project included overlay resurfacing where the existing road structure was sound, and inlay resurfacing where the road surface was damaged and required removal prior to resurfacing. 

Our scope of work included:

• Planing out of carriageway sections and junction to 100mm depth including transitions for overlay sections.
• Replacement of inlay sections with 50mm of AC20 HDM Binder.
• Surfacing on inlay sections with 50mm of 35/14 HRA with 65 PSV pre coated chips.
• Surfacing of overlay sections with 50mm of AC20 HDM Binder.
• Surfacing of overlay sections with 50mm of 35/14 HRA with 65 PSV pre coated chips.
• Replacement of ironwork.
• Installation of new kerbs around gullies.
• Infill and formation of verges for overlay sections to make up additional height.

Key quantities:

• Carriageway replaced: 1,000 m
• AC20 Binder: 640 t
• HRA 34/14 with 65 PSV pre coated Chips: 660 t

Challenges & successes

The road is a busy commuter route between West Cumbria and the Sellafield nuclear site which has large traffic volumes at commuter times. The works was completed under full road closure during the day with diversions established through pre-determined villages which had sufficient road capacity for the daytime traffic.

Unfortunately, a high volume of drivers decided to use non approved roads to bypass the works which caused congestion in small villages and inconvenience to the village residents. To resolve this situation, we assisted our client’s Traffic Management contractor and quickly installed additional signage to ensure drivers only used the approved diversion routes. We also deployed additional resource to complete the project as quickly as possible to minimise the disruption to road users and residents.

We successfully completed the project 1 day ahead of schedule to the satisfaction of our client and the residents.