LAND surveys that will help develop possible designs for a new bridge at Exceat will begin next week.

The surveys of Exceat Bridge and the surrounding areas will be carried out from Monday, October 15 to Friday, November 2.

Surveyors will be on site between 8am and 5pm each day, with traffic management in place during some of the work.

Karl Taylor, assistant director of operations at East Sussex County Council, said: “For some time we have been looking at ways to address the bottleneck created by the one-lane Exceat Bridge. A grant of £2.3million from the Government’s National Productivity investment fund is enabling us to push ahead with design work for a new two-lane bridge which will ease congestion.

“The new bridge will need to be carefully designed to minimise its impact on the South Downs National Park in which it sits, and the survey being carried out is the first step in this process.”

From Monday, October 15 to Friday, October 19, the carriageway will be surveyed and stop and go traffic management will be in place to enable the work to be carried out safely.

From Monday, October 22 to Friday, November 2, a survey of the surrounding area will be carried out.

Mr Taylor added: “There will be some disruption caused by the traffic management in place during the first week, but it is important that this work is carried out to enable us to progress this scheme.”

A number of options to address congestion at Exceat Bridge have been considered including traffic lights, but it is felt that a new two-lane bridge is the only way to effectively deal with the issue.

Funding of £500,000, already approved by the council for maintenance of the bridge, will go towards the construction of the new bridge, should the scheme be successful.

The survey work is the first stage of an extensive design, costing and planning process and any proposal would be subject to discussion and approval from the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA).

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