Broadoak Road, Tunstall & Mistead

This is to let you know that, as part of the on-going maintenance and improvement of the highway network, Kent County Council will be working to improve the road surface of Broadoak Road between Ruins Barn Road and Broadoak Enterprise Village. These road surface improvement works are programmed to start on the 8th July 2025 and should take 1 day to complete but is programmed for 2 days. These activities will be undertaken during a working window between the hours of 09.30am and 15.30pm. This type of work can be affected by bad weather, so if it is not possible for us to carry it out at this time, we will arrange a new date and let you know via a letter drop to your home. We will also put up signs along the road, before we start, showing the date we plan to start work. During these essential works it will be necessary to close the road completely so that we can carry out the works safely for both the workforce and road users. The diversion route will be in place via Ruins Barn Road, Cromers Road, Highsted Valley, Bottom Pond Road, Broadoak Road and vice versa. The timings of works and how the ‘working window’ may affect you Our surfacing improvement (Surface Dressing) is a very quick process and usually takes no more than half a day to complete. We therefore undertake a programme of several surfacing sites in a day, following on consecutively from each other, to maximise the economy of our surfacing. Consequently, it is not possible to give an exact time when we will attend your road in advance of the works as this is dependent on the progress at other sites during the day, however the works are programmed to be undertaken within the working window specified above. Where we have specified the works may take place over 2 or more days, we would expect our operatives to be on site on either of these days, again for a few hours in a single visit. Surface Dressing is a quick process but is also heavily dependent on good weather and site conditions. By allowing for extra days we can ensure that unforeseen circumstances to our works can be accommodated and disruption to local residents is minimised. What we plan to do We will use a process called ‘Surface Dressing’ to improve the road surface. Surface dressing is quick to apply, which means less disruption to road users, residents, local businesses and the emergency services. It is a cost-effective way of prolonging the life expectancy of the road before any major repair works are required. It also benefits from having a low carbon footprint. Surface dressing is applied directly onto the existing road in two stages. The first is the application of a hot binder which is sprayed onto the road surface and the second is the laying of chippings onto the binder. (Sometimes we lay 2 or more layers of chippings depending on the design). These layers seal the surface to prevent water penetration, restore texture and improve skid resistance. The carriageway may then be rolled using a rubber wheeled roller. This is to ensure the chippings are properly embedded and stick into the binder permanently. The continued action of the traffic also helps to embed the chippings as well. To make sure all the binder is covered with chippings, we lay enough onto the road to ensure a full covering, and to make certain there are no gaps. There will be some loose chippings left, which is quite normal, and consequently we erect 20mph speed limit signs to slow vehicles down as they pass over the new surface. These signs will be on site until the road has settled down and all programmed sweeps have been carried out. Generally, after 14 days of the completion of the surfacing the road markings will be reinstated. Further Information on this treatment process