Sandy Lane West

Client: M Group / Oxfordshire County Council

Budget: £270,000

Department: Highways and Engineering (Infrastructure Solutions) 

Completed: February 2025

Summary

ODS Highways was approached by M Group to undertake work on Sandy Lane West outside St John Fisher Catholic Primary School. This was part of Oxfordshire County Council’s safer routes to school programme, to improve road safety for children and parents.

Requirements

To install a zebra crossing outside St John Fisher Catholic Primary School on Sandy Lane West.

To build road humps on both sides of the zebra crossing to reduce vehicle speeds and increase awareness of the crossing point.

To remove the hedge in front of the school to improve visibility.

To enhance pedestrian safety along the southern footway by treating the three side-road entry points on to Sandy Lane West.

Challenges

1. Managing the works on a busy road that provides direct access to well established residential areas and significant commercial premises required careful planning to mitigate the impact.

2. Working outside a primary school required scheduling works around the school day and term dates to minimise disruption.

3. Planning overnight works to alleviate impact on local community.

Solutions

Appropriate traffic management and signed diversion routes for proposed works (localised lane closures and temporary side road closures) were established.

Temporary traffic lights equipped with monitoring equipment to react to varying demands in traffic flow were set up at both ends of Sandy Lane West to manage the traffic flow.

A gateman was in plan to manage traffic in and out of the residential side roads.

Main works with the road closed were undertaken during the school half term holiday.

Site deliveries were timed to occur outside school pickup and drop off time.

Works were carried out overnight, particularly laying tarmac, to minimise disruption to the network.

Results

A successful Safer Routes to School scheme has been delivered, with increased pedestrian safety.

Client Testimonial

"Through excellent communication and collaborative working between ODS, our team at M Group, OCC and the school, we delivered a successful ‘Safer Routes to School’ scheme, popular with the school and the local community.

ODS’ communication throughout the project was excellent, they were key to ensuring the scheme was completed on time and resolved any issues quickly and professionally leading to a good quality result.

It was a pleasure working with ODS, and we look forward to future projects."

Naomi Barnes, Principal Engineer, M Group

During

After