Hampshire County Councillors visited the Brighton Hill roundabout roadworks to review progress on repairs of damaged communication cables and the improvement of roundabout works.

County Councillor for Basingstoke South West Cllr Stephen Reid was joined by Cllr Nick Adams-King, the executive member at the county council with responsibility for Highways Operations.

Cllr Reid said: "As of Friday, June 24, the broken phone and internet cables have been repaired, so everyone should be up and running again. If anyone still has a problem, they should contact their service providers immediately.

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"The outages affected thousands of people and the repairs took a long time, despite Openreach working round the clock in very difficult conditions.

"The onward route of the cables that were severed is being checked and, if deep trenches have to be dug, the ground is being checked for unexpected pipes and cables. The contractors are using machines that suck up debris and their diggers do not have teeth on the shovels, both to avoid digging down too deep. Every effort is being made to avoid another mishap.”

Cllr Reid also said the roundabout improvements are progressing well, and the contractors are hopeful that the cable strike would not delay the overall programme.

"Currently, huge soakaways are being put in place to ensure the drainage of the extended carriageways,” Cllr Reid said.

“In some places it is now possible to see the extent by which the carriageway will be widened and the line that the new kerbs will take.

"I found some of the technical details fascinating. As might be expected a lot of the work is taking place on chalk, and this limits the months in which it can be carried out. Chalk loses its integrity when it gets too wet, so much of the work has to be completed in the summer months.

"Councillor Adams-King and I have asked for regular updates on progress, which I will report to local residents. I am grateful to Nick, as Executive Member responsible for Highways Operations, for taking a personal interest in this project and making time to review it on site.

"The roadworks are an inconvenience, but I believe the gain will be worth it."

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