Overnight road closures Horsham A24 as housing building makes progress

The footbridge linking the two new housing estates is already complete and a new junction is being constructed on the A24 at Highwood Hill.

The new builds associated with the road improvements, shared between Berkeley Homes and Countryside Properties, are seeing homes selling quickly.

road closures

Full carriageway night closures will enable road surfacing works to take place on the dual carriageway.

The closures of both the north and south bound carriageways started on Monday (March 9) for five nights and there will be further closures from Monday March 23 for five nights and then for five nights from Monday April 20.

They will in place between the Farthings Hill and Hop Oast junctions from 8pm to 5.30am the following morning. A full signed diversion route through Horsham town centre will be in place.

A spokesman for J Breheny Contractors said: “The A24 Horsham works are progressing well and the team is ahead of schedule. We currently anticipate the road fully opening to the public this summer.

“We greatly appreciate the patience of the motoring public in Horsham throughout the duration of these works and apologise for any inconvenience during the forthcoming night closures in March and April.

“These night closures are necessary for this road improvement scheme and we would ask that motorists on the A24 take extra care during the roadworks.”

This week’s closure is to complete the road surfacing works at each end of the works.

It starting on the March 23 is to complete the road surfacing of the northbound carriageway adjacent to Broadbridge Heath Tesco and the April closure is to finish road surfacing on the southbound carriageway.

The works are designed to ease traffic pressure on the Farthing Hill interchange and A264.

The new junctions will provide dedicated access roads to the Highwood housing development to the east of the A24 near Horsham and the Wickhurst Green development to the west of the A24, which adjoins Broadbridge Heath.

Speed limit changes

West Sussex County Council has also approved speed restrictions and layout changes to the existing and new roads ready for completion.

Since the Farthings Hill roundabout and Highwood Hill roundabouts will be quite close to each other, a 40mph restriction will be imposed on the slip road joining them.

A 40mph speed limit will also be introduced on the A281 from the Farthings Hill junction.

The old A264, which runs to the south of the original Broadbridge Heath boundary will be downgraded to help integrate the new build with the existing village.

A new A264 by pass will be constructed and although it will be street-lit and a dual carriageway, the speed limit will be 40mph. It will have with no direct access points to or from the development to maximise flow.

To prevent through-traffic accessing the new A264 from Old Wickhurst Lane, only westbound traffic on the new carriageway will be able to turn into and out of Old Wickhurst Lane.

All other traffic movements will be prohibited.

Building work progress

Being supported by the road improvements are the housing developments by Berkeley Homes on the east of the A24 and Countryside Properties south of Broadbridge Heath.

When complete they will consist of around 2,000 homes, land for a primary school and a new neighbourhood centre with space for shops, offices and a doctors’ surgery.

Andrew Carrington, managing director of strategic land at Countryside said: “Countryside is on schedule to deliver the new homes at Wickhurst Green near Broadbridge Heath, with approximately 300 new homes built to date.

“We currently have show homes open on two phases St Irvynes and The Lanes, and have recently submitted planning applications for the final residential phase and the new neighbourhood centre.”

The Berkeley Homes part is for 1,044 homes.

A spokesman said: “The majority of our homes have been sold off-plan and we have exceeded our expected sales rate, selling off plan up to a year in advance of completion.

“We have a mix of product across the development ranging from one bedroom apartments to five bedroom family homes therefore our buyer profile has been varied and has included downsizers, families, young professionals and first time buyers both from the local area and those looking to move further from London.

“Investors have also been being attracted by the healthy yields seen to date.

“Our next stage is the launch of our next phase Saddlers Place which will launch at the end of this month and will be a mix of 40, two, three and four bedroom houses, the phase after this will launched in the summer and will include a range of apartments as well as two, three and four bedroom homes.

“Progress is as expected in terms of our build and by June 2015 we will have completed 191 new homes.”

Community feel

A recent key milestone was the completion of the main square at Highwood which is a focal point for the residents (see attached).

Work has also started on an extra care building which will comprise of 105 apartments.

The Berkeley Homes spokesman added there was a community feel at the development and they have felt supported by existing Horsham residents.