Alliance passes early tests

The West Sussex Alliance has passed a number of challenging tests in the first few weeks since it was launched on 1 July.

The first came just five days after 'going live', when a hydraulic crane mounted on the back of an HGV collided with the central part of the Angmering footbridge on the A259 Roundstone Bypass.

The incident occurred late afternoon - the busiest time for pedestrians and traffic. The impact caused severe damage to one of the main steel girders and Sussex Police closed the road and footbridge, which resulted in major disruption to traffic.

West Sussex Highways provided a co-ordinated response, with May Gurney assisting with traffic management and cleaning up the road and Owen Williams' engineers inspecting the bridge. May Gurney has also erected barriers to prevent pedestrians from using the bridge until it is repaired.

Less than a fortnight later, on 18 July - the day before the hottest day recorded for 100 years - a Unibody 7.5 tonne gritter was called out to make sections of the melting A259 safe. And over the following days all West Sussex Highways' gritters attended melting roads as temperatures soared.

In another unusual incident on 9 August, a bus collided with and felled a 17m tree - putting the West Sussex Highways Clapham-based team to the test.

Excellent communication and quick thinking by the customer services officer and supervisors resulted in a call out time of just 30 minutes - and 90 minutes later the tree had been cleared and the pavement and verge re-instated.

Related stories:-
New Alliance gets down to business
Highway 'leaders' award five-year contract

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