THE director of highways has asked motorists to be patient and considerate while finishing off works are carried out on Richmond Hill.
Motorists driving in and out of Douglas will have noticed that the road has, once again, been taken over with orange cones since Monday.
Director Richard Pearson said the cones will be in place for two weeks and are there to protect the workforce as minor finishing off work is carried out.
He explained: "We are installing some verge master posts. These are small plastic posts with reflectors as used on the mountain. The idea is that at night the headlights of cars heading north will pick out the top right hand bend. On the same basis we are installing cats' eyes where they will bring a safety benefit.
"Originally we planned to have street lighting through this section but we decided these reflector based treatments were more appropriate to a rural environment and they will also be more cost effective to install and lower maintenance.
"At the same time we are constructing a short length of sod hedge. This will also have a safety benefit as it will highlight the same bend during the day and will help either stop or at least slow any vehicles that accidentally leave the road at this point."
Mr Pearson said the works had been brought forward following an initial safety assessment.
He continued: "I hope people will appreciate that this scheme will bring safety benefits but even if the road layout had not been improved we would anyway have needed to spend a similar amount simply to maintain the existing road which had reached the end of its useful life."
Reflecting on criticism of the Richmond Hill scheme Mr Pearson concluded: "Would it really make sense to spend several million pounds reconstructing a failed road on the same unsafe alignment? Surely it is much better use of public money to replace the road and at the same time correct the unsafe alignment."
Earlier this week it was revealed that the Richmond Hill scheme would come in below budget. For more on this click here.
