Below is a summary of answers to residents’ questions to Highways Authority received over the years (summarised by Ruth O’Keeffe).
The questions were:
When will the by-pass be resurfaced?
How much will it cost?
What materials will be used?
Points offered in answers appear to be:
1 Noise along the road is considered acceptable by the contractors and the highways authority
2 Noise along the road is not measured by the contractors or the highway authority
3 Figures for noise along the road are not held by the contractors or the highway authority
4 The Lewes District Council will have the information for the contractors and the highways authority about noise levels along the road
5 The contractors and the highway authority have not asked Lewes District Council for noise level figures
6 The noise level limit has not been reached
7 There is no figure for the noise level limit
8 Noise levels are not considered when looking at whether to resurface a road
9 The roads which are the noisiest have to be resurfaced first because of the level of noise
10 Resurfacing of all the roads in the country currently felt too noisy by local residents would cost billions
11 Resurfacing all of these roads would use taxpayers money so it cannot be done
12 There is a programme to resurface all of these roads using taxpayers money
13 Resurfacing the Lewes by-pass is something which is in a schedule of works to be done
14 Resurfacing the Lewes by-pass is not planned
15 Resurfacing the Lewes by-pass will take place when the structure of the surface is considered unsafe
16 Detailed knowledge of the materials of which the by-pass is constructed is held by both highways
authority and contractor
17 Neither the contractor nor the highways authority know when the materials will require resurfacing to take place
18 Each project is carefully costed which takes a great deal of time and money
19 No records are kept of costings to enable estimates for a new project to be made
20 The highways authority and the contractors are experienced people with detailed knowledge of the
materials involved
21 The highways authority and the contractors have no idea how much it would cost to resurface a particular kind of standard road