Merton, Merton Road

Updated - Wednesday 26 February

We've replaced all our old metal gas mains in Merton Road five weeks ahead of schedule and we're now carrying out reinstatement work.

Following close consultation with Merton London Borough Council and Transport for London, our project began on Monday 20 January and was originally expected to last 12 weeks. However, our engineers have made excellent progress and we've been able to finish our network upgrades sooner than anticipated. We were able to safely use a new insertion technique allowing greater lengths of our durable plastic pipe to be inserted at a time.

The traffic management measures for safety around our site while we carried out this engineering work will remain in place while we complete reinstatement. All being well, we expect to complete this work by Sunday 1 March.

Merton Road is closed to all motorists at its junction with Kingston Road for everyone’s safety. Motorists looking to enter Merton Road will need to follow our signed diversion via Montague Road and The Broadway. Drivers wanting to exit Merton Road at this junction will be diverted via The Broadway, Hartfield Road and Kingston Road.

Kingston Road, Merton High Street and Morden Road remain reduced to one lane on their respective approaches to this junction.

Map showing closure and diversion routes for our project in Merton Road

The existing traffic light system at this junction has been replaced with temporary signals. These temporary UTC lights are being controlled by TfL to help manage traffic flow and minimise congestion.

We’re aware that this is a traffic-sensitive location and would advise motorists to allow extra time for their journeys, or use alternative routes, until we've finished our reinstatement and its safe for us to remove our barriers and clear site.

Pedestrian access to homes and businesses is maintained and all shops in the area will remain open as usual. Local small businesses which suffer a genuine loss of trade because of our work may qualify for our compensation scheme.

Following concerns from residents and schools, we installed signs encouraging motorists to switch off their engines while stationary to limit air pollution. The council’s environment team has confirmed that air pollution has not exceeded acceptable levels for the area since our project began in mid-January.

There has been reports of dangerous driving on roads around our site. We’d encourage all motorists to follow our signed diversion routes and drive safely around our work areas. We’re unable to install CCTV equipment, and do not have enforcement powers, so please contact the police if you feel someone is driving in a dangerous manner that could result in harm to others.

We understand that people can get frustrated by roadworks. However, the new plastic pipe has a minimum lifespan of 80 years. This means that when our work at the junction of Merton Road and Kingston Road is complete, residents and traders will continue to enjoy the benefits of a safe and reliable gas supply for many years to come.

Help and advice

We’re working to replace old, metal gas mains with new plastic pipe. This will ensure a continued safe and reliable gas supply to Merton homes and businesses.

Our contractors Forefront will be carrying out this work on our behalf with support from our dedicated project manager.

We’ve planned this project in close consultation with London Borough of Merton Council.

While we understand there’s no ideal time to carry out our work, we need to replace this old gas main. The large diameter gas pipe that runs along Merton Road was identified in 2009 as needing to be replaced given its age and condition. However, due to the location and the potential disruptive impact of the work, replacing this main has been deferred for 11 years.

This cast iron main is at a high risk of failure and it’s essential we replace it now. A failure would significantly impact the area, involve emergency road closures, potential evacuations of properties and loss of supplies.

Our Merton Road project forms part of a programme of work developed by The Health and Safety Executive which addresses the failure of “at risk” iron gas mains. Pipes within 30 metres of buildings must be decommissioned or replaced before 2032 to reduce the risk of injuries, fatalities and building damage.

Merton Road will be closed to motorists at its junction with Kingston Road around our work area for everyone’s safety. Motorists looking to enter Merton Road will need to follow our signed diversion via Montague Road and The Broadway. Drivers wanting to exit Merton Road at this junction will be diverted via The Broadway, Hartfield Road and Kingston Road.

We originally also reduced the eastbound carriageway of Kingston Road to one lane on its approach to the junction, but we’ve now needed to reduce Merton High Street and Morden Road to one lane, too.

We're aware that this is a traffic-sensitive location and would advise motorists to allow extra time for their journeys, or use alternative routes, while we carry out this work.

We’ll be posting updates on our progress, as well as keeping you updated if there’s any unexpected changes to our project, on this webpage.

We started our project on Monday 20 January and it’ll take approximately 12 weeks to complete.

Our engineers will be working between 8am and 6pm on weekdays and between 8am and 5pm on Saturdays. This is a complex engineering project, so certain activities may not involve physical tasks but technical processes behind the scenes.

Merton Council advised us of negative feedback regarding working extended hours at this location during previous consultations with residents and traders.

We’ve also considered the noisy activity associated with carrying out works of this nature, as well as for safety and lighting, especially during months of shorter daylight hours.

The existing traffic light system at this junction has been replaced with temporary signals. These temporary UTC lights are being controlled by TfL to help manage traffic flow and minimise congestion.

We’d advise you to notify your delivery company that there is a traffic diversion currently in place.

Cyclists should follow our signed diversion routes in place.

However, as pedestrian access will be maintained throughout our project, cyclists may dismount and walk with their bicycle around our closure before continuing journeys.

We’re sorry for the inconvenience our road closure causes commuters on bus services serving Merton Road. Some bus stops may be suspended and relocated away from our work area for everyone’s safety and routes will be redirected around our closure.

We liaised with Merton Council, TfL and London Buses during the planning of these works. TfL is responsible for the diversion of any of their services.

London Buses are unable to supply a shuttle service, as there are few areas to safely turn around in the area covered, and there are alternative bus routes along Queens Road and Haydons Road which still feed the nearby area.

We would encourage all commuters to please plan ahead and allow extra time for your journey. You can find advice and the latest travel information on TfL’s website and by following @TfLBusAlerts on Twitter.

London Underground services in and out of South Wimbledon station will not be impacted by our work.

Commuter access to the train station will be maintained throughout.

All businesses will remain open as usual.

To keep everyone safe, we need to close Merton Road to traffic around our work area, but you’ll still be able to access shops, homes and businesses on foot.

We appreciate that our essential work will impact Merton Road businesses and we’re doing all we can to support local traders during our upgrade project.

Pedestrian access to businesses is maintained and all shops in the area will remain open as usual throughout our work. Local small businesses which suffer a genuine loss of trade because of our work may qualify for our compensation scheme.

As we are renewing the pipe in Merton Road, your gas supply may be temporarily interrupted while we carry out the section nearby to your property. We will try to keep any interruptions to a minimum, and we’ll let you know in advance if your gas supply is likely to be affected by our upgrade work.

We originally planned to upgrade our gas network at this junction in 2018. However, due to engineering difficulties, the project was suspended.

We’ve since been consulting with Merton Council to ensure the same issues were not encountered on site and that we can safely upgrade our network with the minimum disruption to the local community.

If you have any queries regarding our work in Merton, please call our Customer Service team on 0800 912 0804.