SGN now says the High Street will not reopen until Sunday 27 September, a week later than billed. The gas work is ahead; the delay is resurfacing.
The closure of Sutton High Street at the Burnell Road junction will run a week longer than residents were told. SGN now expects to reopen the road on Sunday 27 September, not Sunday 20 September.
The gas network posted the change on its project page on Friday 18 September, the day before the closure was due to end (SGN: Sutton, Burnell Road).
The digging itself is going well. SGN says its engineers are “ahead of schedule” and expects to finish the engineering work this weekend. The extra week is for making the road good again: “We’re expecting to complete the engineering work this weekend, before work to restore the road surfaces we’ve disturbed to their original condition. All being well, we hope to be able to reopen High Street by Sunday 27 September.”
This is the second time the dates have moved. SGN originally kept the junction shut from 14 September to 18 October, then cut it to a single week on 12 September, which we reported at the time in SGN cuts the High Street closure to one week. The one-week promise has now become two.
The operator’s own page still says the 20th
SGN has not updated its street-by-street table. Further down the same page, the Burnell Road and High Street entry still reads “Starting Mon 14 Sep, Finishing Sun 20 Sep”. Only the dated update at the top carries the new date. Anyone scrolling to the schedule will read the old one.
The legal position has not caught up either. On London’s roadworks register, SGN’s permit for the High Street dig (reference XW200W122861909-05497) runs 6 to 19 September, so it expires today. No replacement or extension was showing when we checked the register on the morning of 19 September (LondonWorks register). Permits can be varied at short notice, and the register is the legal record rather than the operator’s intention.
What else is dug up on that stretch
The High Street does not clear on the 27th either. Three other permits overlap it:
- Sutton Council, kerb and drainage repairs on the High Street, 20 to 24 September (permit MB00981022477)
- SES Water, a new 63mm bulk water connection tapped off the existing 8 inch main, to 1 October
- Transport for London, temporary signals at the High Street junction with Vale Road for the SGN work, to 30 September (TfL traffic status)
A scaffold licence for window replacement and redecoration also keeps part of the High Street occupied until 17 October.
Then Vale Road, from Monday 28 September
The next phase begins the day after the High Street is meant to reopen. Vale Road closes between the High Street and Bushey Lane from Monday 28 September, and SGN’s page keeps it shut until 1 November. The register’s permit for that stretch runs 13 September to 10 October, which is a different window again.
Elsewhere on the same job, SGN’s Friday update says:
- three-way temporary signals stay at the Oakhill Road and Brunswick Road junction, which SGN hopes to remove by Sunday 11 October
- the excavations in Collingwood Road remain open, to be backfilled by Sunday 11 October
- a lane on Bushey Road, closed to hold the site’s welfare facilities and equipment, reopens by the same date
Two of those dates are ahead of the register rather than behind it. The Oakhill Road gas permit expires today, 19 September, three weeks before the 11 October that SGN publishes, and Brunswick Road has no live permit at all in the register’s 19 September to 15 October window.
Still nothing on the buses
Five days into the closure, there is still no published bus information. SGN’s page says only that routes “may be impacted” and tells residents to contact their operator. TfL’s road disruption feed carried no bus diversion for the borough when we checked it on 19 September.
The whole job is the first project in a £30 million, five-year SGN programme to replace 15 kilometres of old large metal mains across south London. In Sutton it means decommissioning about 1.5 kilometres of iron gas main between Erskine Road and Collingwood Road. The permits describe the old main as “continually leaking and placing nearby properties and businesses at risk”. SGN’s programme for the borough runs to 1 November.
What it means for you
- Do not plan on the junction reopening this weekend. SGN’s own target is now Sunday 27 September, and the resurfacing still has to happen.
- The week after that is not clear either. Council kerb and drainage work on the High Street runs 20 to 24 September, and the Vale Road closure starts on Monday 28 September.
- Check before you travel. LondonWorks and one.network list every permitted dig in the borough, and TfL’s traffic status covers the red routes.
- If your bus is affected, the operator is the only source. Neither SGN nor TfL has published a diversion.
- Our Sutton roadworks and travel page tracks the whole programme, and the trains to London guide has the rail alternative, including the late-night Thameslink closures from Monday 21 to Thursday 24 September.
Sources: SGN, Sutton Burnell Road project page, update of 18 September 2026; LondonWorks roadworks register, borough of Sutton, permits live between 19 September and 15 October 2026, checked 19 September; TfL road disruption data, checked 19 September 2026.
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