I take it there's a diversion in place somewhere in HOP? The P4 bus has been seen coming along the South Circ at the fire station area and this morning's traffic is absolutely solid on the A205, in both directions.

What's up, folks? Thanks!

BBC Travel;

B238 Honor Oak Park Honor Oak, both ways between B218 Stondon Park and Devonshire Road

B238 London - B238 Honor Oak Park in Honor Oak closed and queueing traffic between the B218 Stondon Park junction and the Devonshire Road junction, because of a burst water main. Congestion on B218 Brockley Rise to the A205 Stansted Road junction.

Was bad yesterday evening with congestion spreading all along Honor Oak Road and streets off it.

Another forum had details:

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/...?5,1254979

This post was last modified: 22-01-2014 09:02 AM by gbrownings.

That would explain it! Very many thanks.

Good ol' Beeb.com. Why didn't I think of that.

Thank you, gbrownings!

Was all the fun of the fair this morning, tipper trucks, large vehicles all trying to get down Devonshire Road - that ain't gonna work.

Also, people trying to rush through the smallest gaps, then blocking the road completely.

It's busy folks, calm down, wait your turn and everyone should get through a bit quicker.

Also (again...) leaning on your horn doesn't help...

Basically, Honor Oak Park is closed between just beyond the junction with Devonshire Road to the junction of Honor Oak Rd / Forest Hill Rd. Traffic being diverted along Devonshire from the HOP end or along Honor Oak Road from the Forest Hill Road end.

Avoid if you can.

Hi I just wanted to post and introduce myself as one of the Labour Council Candidates for Forest Hill Ward in 2014. Below is some information supplied by Thames water regarding the disruption along Deveonshire Road and surrounding area.

Emergency repair work Thames Water is undertaking to repair a leak on a large water main in Honor Oak Park.

The leak has caused damage to the road surface and for safety reasons we need to close a section of Honor Oak Park to assess the damage and undertake repair works. We are working very closely with highway officers at LB Lewisham to minimise the disruption to local residents and ensure our emergency repair works can be completed as soon as possible. They are changing the diversion for HGVs, to take them away from Devonshire Road.

There is no impact on customers’ water supply as a result of this leak.

Hi Paul
Thanks for your comments. I called the council this morning to report the problem. What concerns me particularly is that there is not management of the diversion whatsoever.
On my very short walk to the station this morning I saw two motorbikes drive over the path, in opposite directions. Last night on my way home I saw one argument between drivers who were refusing to move (and to be fair, didn't really have anywhere to go). A one way diversion may work on Devonshire Road, with two way traffic it is ridiculous not to have traffic lights or a traffic officer monitoring the situation.

Could you please raise this with the highways staff as if the diversion continues much longer, I would think we will either have an accident or a 'road rage' incident.

Thanks.

There have been a lot of water leaks on Honor Oak Road recently, seems like one gets fixed and another one springs up straight away!

There's already at least one car parked on Devonshire Road that's lost its wing mirror, I notice. Not mine, this time (though it's happened before whilst my car's been parked on this apparent rat run I live on).

The closure and diversion of P4/P12 buses was pre-planned, to tie in with the road resurfacing of that section of HOP. The bus diversions were intended to be 9:30 to 4pm only from last Friday, through to yesterday.

The water main burst seems to be over and above that resurfacing (caused by the heavy vehicles/digging???) which has thrown everything into chaos, though DH saw a P4 on Tuesday morning approx 8:30 stuck upto its axles in a hole with water gooshing everywhere, so that might have been an contributory factor too.

Tuesday evening was complete motor vehicle mayhem, with every road near that area solid. However, I did the school run this morning and, because of the closure planned to go through FH, but Stanstead Road was solid, so I thought I'd take a punt on the Brockley Rise/HOP route which was absolutely desterted and totally clear. Just shows that you just can't predict where the jam will be next.

Well that was fun this morning!

Just got back from doing the school run and a scaffolding truck was parked on Honor Oak Road just before the corner of Tyson Road. I was waiting patiently for a gap to drive round it otherwise I would have hit another car square on coming in the opposite direction. The hoots and beeps I got have left my ears ringing!

Try and avoid it if you can because the scaffolding truck had no-one in it, and didn't seem to be moving anytime soon

The scaffolding truck is still there causing trouble.

When coming up the hill from HOP Station on Monday evening at about 20.30, the leak was in full glory and it is in the same place where the temporary lights were before Christmas. Thames Water had these in place for a week, dug up the road and fiddled a bit. When the surface was reinstated, the leak was back within a week. The same thing has happened on the other side of the crest in Forest Hill Road. Also I see that the waterfall by the flats opposite Benson Rad is back and this is in addition to at least three other weeping road surfaces within about 1 km of the closure. I wonder if Thames Water plc sticks a gob of chewing gum in the leak and hopes for the best. After all it would be cheaper than a proper repair.

The traffic lights at the junction of Stansted Road, Brockley Rise and Cranston Road have had their phases altered, presumably in response to this. The southbound green phase is now approximately one hour.

The scaffolding truck is in the same spot again today causing problems!

I just spoke to the fellas on site. They've fixed the main leak (phew, after 2+ yrs of telling TW about it!) outside 125ish HOP and repaired the road but unsurprisingly the increased pressure meant the next weakest point burst. They're digging closer to the junction with Hengrave Rd and will be there all night and tomorrow.

Walking down to the station this afternoon, noticed a lot of water seeping out of the road near Walter's Way . Presumably, TW will either wait for a burst there or better still, allow Lewisham to resurface the road then dig it up, slap a bit of tarnac in the hole and run off to leave the road surface fall apart again. Hey ho!

The mains are probably at least 100 years old and rusting away. Replacement is long overdue!

Well works still ongoing. With my wife due to give birth any day and still waiting, I'm hoping they finish up soon - heard maybe finishing tomorrow but let's see! Driving to Kings Hospital this morning via the S Circular was over double the normal time and a complete standstill at times.

It is causing absolute ciaos on the roads all around Forest Hill and Honor Oak. The old phrase/joke of 'how many men does it take to repair a burst water pipe' comes to mind. Clearly too many! Quite frankly it's appalling it's taking Thames Water so long to get the problem sorted when we are paying through the nose for water!

From what I've seen over the last few days, it's causing misery to so many residents who are trying to go about their daily business. It's not the end of the world for me that it's taking me an extra 40 mins to get home of an evening but people who run businesses, have to get their kids to school, get their pregnant wife's to hospital (etc etc) I dread to think the aggravation this is causing them. RANT OVER!!

Wondering whether anyone has any more info on this? The Thames water website says works should have finished on the 30th - obviously not by the looks of the traffic jam outside my bedroom window.