Road near Earl's Court dug up at night 500 times in five years

 
Earl’s Court

Workmen have shattered the sleep of residents by digging up a London road hundreds of times in the dead of night.

Transport for London revealed that contractors dug up Warwick Road, next to Earl’s Court, nearly 500 times in the past five years.

Companies undertaking the works, all of which were marked “emergency” or “urgent”, included TfL, Thames Water, UK Power Networks and National Grid Gas.

Works ranged from fixing water leaks to repairing a gas escape and from excavating a “dangerous pothole” to making safe a “trip hazard”, according to a Freedom of Information Act response.

Contractors work at night to avoid £2,500 fees to do daytime repairs and maintenance on the red route.

A resident of a nearby block said his walls shudder when the digging starts. He said: “We’re getting ready for bed and then we hear the digging.

“They use jackhammers, mini-diggers and JCBs, you can feel the vibrations and our building shakes. I bought the flat a couple of years ago and was aware it was a busy road, but now we are considering moving.

“None of these utilities are getting together and having a coordinated approach to shut down the road for two weeks and get everything done. This is bad planning.”

Kensington & Chelsea council told him that in the past five years there had been “over 484 cases of night time working” in Warwick Road.

He said: “They never start digging before 10pm and this goes on between 1am and 4am.

“Most of the works are marked either ‘emergency’ or ‘urgent’, but they shouldn’t be having this many emergencies.”

Garrett Emmerson, of TfL, said: “The vast majority of the works in question on this TfL road were emergency street defects which were carried out overnight to minimise inconvenience.

“All works carried out on TfL roads must meet clear guidelines set out by the Mayor to reduce disruption.

“We nevertheless apologise to residents who have raised concerns.”

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