The A26 from Itford to Newhaven shuts 8pm to 6am on 6, 7 and 8 October. No trains run Lewes to Three Bridges on 10 and 11 October; buses replace them.

The A26 between Lewes and Newhaven closes overnight three more times this week. National Highways has booked a full closure in both directions, 8pm to 6am, for drainage work. It covers the stretch its closure report calls “South Downs Way to Avis Road”, from the South Downs Way crossing near Itford down to Avis Road at the Newhaven end.

The closure nights still to come are:

  • Tuesday 6 October, 8pm to 6am Wednesday
  • Wednesday 7 October, 8pm to 6am Thursday
  • Thursday 8 October, 8pm to 6am Friday

The report does not publish a diversion route, so follow the signs on the night.

No trains run between Lewes and Three Bridges on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October. Network Rail is closing the Brighton Main Line between Three Bridges and Brighton, Hove and Lewes for both days, with buses replacing trains. That cuts the direct line north through Cooksbridge, Plumpton and Haywards Heath for the whole weekend.

Full London trains are due back on Monday 12 October. National Rail says the thinned out weekday off-peak timetable between Eastbourne, Ore and London Victoria stays in place until Friday 9 October, and that the normal timetable is “expected” to resume from the following Monday. Until then there is still no direct midday train from Lewes to London. What that has meant for Lewes passengers.

The rest of the Lewes roadworks diary over the next fortnight:

  • Tonight to Thursday 8 October, from about 22:00: buses replace trains between Haywards Heath and Lewes, Polegate and Eastbourne.
  • Tuesday 6 to Wednesday 14 October, weeknights 7pm to 6am: Folders Lane and Common Lane at Ditchling close.
  • Until Friday 9 October: Janes Lane, Wivelsfield, stays on 24-hour traffic lights.
  • Friday 9 and Saturday 10 October, overnight: the A27 closes in both directions between Berwick and Polegate.
  • Sunday 11 October, overnight: the A27 eastbound closes between Coldean and Falmer.
  • Monday 12 to Thursday 15 October, and again from Monday 19 October: the 01:08 Haywards Heath to Eastbourne does not run; buses replace it via Lewes.
  • Monday 19 October, 8am to 4pm: South Road, Wivelsfield, goes on to temporary lights.
  • From Monday 19 October, after 23:00: buses replace trains between Lewes and Seaford.
  • To the end of November: the Denton Corner bus scheme at Newhaven, weekdays 7am to 6pm.

The rail information is from National Rail Enquiries and Network Rail. The county roadworks are from East Sussex Highways, which runs the road network here for East Sussex County Council. The A26 south of Beddingham, the A27 and the A23 are National Highways. Everything on this page was re-checked on Tuesday 6 October 2026.

The A26 to Newhaven: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights

This is the road most people in Newhaven use to reach Lewes, and the one Lewes uses to reach the ferry. National Highways’ seven-day closure report, last updated on the afternoon of Monday 5 October and covering Monday 5 to Sunday 11 October, lists the closure as “A26 both directions South Downs Way to Avis Road. carriageway closure”, for drainage works. Each night runs 8pm to 6am.

The job started in the week of 28 September and keeps getting extended. The Monday night closure has now run. This week’s edition adds Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There is no closure booked for Friday, Saturday or Sunday night.

The report lists closures only. It does not publish diversion routes, and an order that imposes lane restrictions without shutting the road does not appear in it. If you drive between Lewes and Newhaven late on those nights, allow for a signed diversion. Nights from Monday 12 October onwards are not in this edition yet, so the job could run on.

Trains: a weekend shutdown, then the normal timetable

Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October: the line north is closed. Network Rail’s page on the Brighton Main Line work lists both days as closures between Three Bridges and Brighton, Hove and Lewes, for track maintenance and work on the line’s structures. Replacement buses run between Three Bridges and Lewes, and between Haywards Heath and Plumpton. Network Rail says passengers are “strongly advised” to use its diverted train service rather than the buses. We could not open Southern’s or National Rail’s own notice for that weekend today (Southern’s site refused the request), so check the journey planner for the exact bus stops and times before you set off.

The off-peak cut runs to Friday 9 October. Since Monday 14 September the weekday timetable between Ore, Eastbourne and London Victoria has been thinned out in the middle of the day. National Rail’s page, last updated on Saturday 3 October, says the temporary timetable stays in place until Friday 9 October, and that “it is expected that the normal timetable will resume from Monday 12 October”.

Until then, on weekdays:

  • The usual half-hourly service to London Victoria runs in the morning peak, until around 09:00.
  • After 09:00 there is no direct service between London and Eastbourne or Ore. Lewes is on the Haywards Heath to Eastbourne shuttle, so trains still call here, but you change at Haywards Heath for London.
  • The usual two trains an hour resume from the 16:24 departure from London Victoria.

The reason given is that the hot summer damaged track condition, so temporary speed restrictions have to stay in place until repairs are finished.

Late evenings this week, Monday 5 to Thursday 8 October. Engineering work in the Lewes area closes various lines from about 22:00 until the end of service each evening. Buses replace trains between Haywards Heath and Lewes, Polegate and Eastbourne, and the Brighton to Seaford branch is affected as well. Three of those evenings are still to come: tonight, Wednesday and Thursday.

Monday 12 to Thursday 15 October. Work in the Three Bridges area changes two late trains that matter here:

  • The 23:25 London Victoria to Brighton, Monday to Wednesday, is diverted after Haywards Heath to run to Brighton via Lewes, and skips Burgess Hill and Hassocks.
  • The 01:08 Haywards Heath to Eastbourne, Tuesday to Thursday mornings, does not run. Buses replace it from Haywards Heath to Lewes and from Lewes to Eastbourne.

That is from National Rail’s notice for the week. The same two changes repeat from Monday 19 to Friday 23 October.

From Monday 19 October: the Seaford branch at night. Engineering work closes all lines between Lewes and Seaford overnight in the week of 19 to 23 October, and after 23:00 buses replace trains between Lewes and Seaford. That takes in Southease, Newhaven Town, Newhaven Harbour and Bishopstone.

The A27 past Lewes: Berwick at the weekend, Falmer on Sunday

We read the National Highways closure report for Monday 5 to Sunday 11 October, for every road on the network, and filtered on the A27, A26 and A23. These entries touch the A27 either side of Lewes:

  • Friday 9 and Saturday 10 October, 9pm to 6am: the A27 closes in both directions between Berwick and Polegate, for horticulture work. That is the road towards Eastbourne.
  • Sunday 11 October, 8pm to 6am: the A27 eastbound closes between Coldean and Falmer, including the layby, for survey work. That is the Brighton to Lewes direction.

The Lewes bypass closure has run. The eastbound closure between Ashcombe and Southerham was booked for Monday night only, and is not booked again in this edition. Nor are the eastbound closures between the A270 and Ashcombe, or the Falmer and Carden slip closures, from last week’s report.

The A23 is still the busier road, and it is the Gatwick route. The northbound Dale Hill exit slip at Pyecombe closes every night of the report except Sunday, 8pm to 6am, for carriageway renewal. On Wednesday night the southbound entry and exit slips at Pyecombe close as well, for vegetation work. Further north, slips close on Wednesday at Pease Pottage (the B2110 southbound entry), on Thursday at Warninglid and Bolney (southbound), and on Friday at Hickstead and Mill Lane (southbound). At Gatwick the eastbound London Road exit slip closes from 9pm Monday to Friday, and the northbound London Road exit slip at the North Terminal from 11pm on Saturday. An overnight airport run needs checking before you set off.

Newhaven: the Seaford Road crossing is shut for the rest of the project

The Denton Corner bus scheme has been running since Tuesday 1 September and is expected to finish by the end of November, weekdays 7am to 6pm.

The pedestrian crossing on the A259 Seaford Road is closed, and East Sussex Highways says it will stay closed “for the duration of the project”. The signed diversion sends pedestrians to the crossings on Drove Road and McKinlay Way instead. The latest weekly construction update, dated 2 October, repeats that. The bulletins sit on a weekly updates page linked from the scheme page.

A reduced speed limit is also in force on the A259 Seaford Road.

The 2 October bulletin says tactile paving is now in at the end of the new cycle lane on Seaford Road and at the new Avis Road crossing, and that the pavement’s final tarmac goes down “in the coming weeks”. This week’s work is more gullies and kerbs at the new bus interchange off Mount Road. Once those are done the interchange carriageway is surfaced, followed by digging out its maintenance layby.

The surfacing date has slipped. The 25 September bulletin had the interchange surfaced in the week beginning 5 October; the 2 October bulletin gives no week, only “once these works are complete”.

The week of night closures for resurfacing, promised “near the end of the project”, still has no dates. The council says advance notice will go on site signs, social media and its website. Buses are unaffected for now; they move to the new bus gate once it is built.

Hamsey Road, Barcombe: asbestos, and still no finish date

Hamsey Road has been closed since Wednesday 10 December 2025, when a culvert under it collapsed and left a void in the carriageway. It is one of the longest road closures in the county.

Repairs began on Monday 27 July 2026 and were expected to take about ten weeks, which would have meant early October. That estimate no longer holds. The latest East Sussex Highways update is still the one posted on 22 September, re-checked today:

  • Asbestos has been found. “Material containing asbestos has been identified within the construction area”, and specialist contractors must remove it before work can continue.
  • Deep digging comes next. The next stage involves “substantial excavation works across the road”, which the council says will be very deep.
  • No new date. The council will publish the remaining programme only once the asbestos has gone and the project has been reviewed.

The update also asks people to stay out of the site, which has CCTV. There is no route through for walkers or cyclists either: the lane is narrow, has no footway, and there is no safe way round the works.

The signed diversion runs via Cooksbridge Road, Deadmantree Hill, the A275, The Drove, North End Lane and Hamsey Lane, and back the same way. It was routed deliberately to avoid the bridge on Church Road, which has a 7.5 tonne weight restriction and is not suitable for lorries.

Ditchling and Wivelsfield: three dated jobs

Folders Lane, Ditchling, from tonight to Wednesday 14 October. Carriageway surfacing on Folders Lane and the B2112 and B2113 roundabout means overnight closures, 7pm to 6am, weeknights only. Two lengths shut:

  • Folders Lane East, between Ditchling Common car park and the roundabout
  • Common Lane, between the railway bridge and the roundabout

The signed diversion for east and west traffic runs via Middleton Common Lane, St Helena Lane, South Road, Green Road, Ditchling Road, Fox Hill, the A272, the A273, the B2036 and the B2113. North and south traffic goes via the B2112, A273, A272, Fox Hill, Green Road, South Road, St Helena Lane and Middleton Common Lane. Access to homes inside the works is managed by the crew, with escorts where needed.

Janes Lane, Wivelsfield, to Friday 9 October. Parapet repairs to the bridge near The Old Dairy: river debris cleared, brickwork replaced, new timber posts and rails. The road stays open on temporary traffic lights running 24 hours a day, and the 30mph limit stays in force until the work finishes. Crews work weekdays, 8am to 4:30pm.

South Road, Wivelsfield, Monday 19 October. New on the council’s list this week. New signs go in outside Magpie Ridge as part of the county’s road safety programme. It is a single day, 8am to 4pm, and the road stays open on temporary traffic lights. South Road is also part of the Folders Lane diversion, though that job is due to finish five days earlier.

What finished, and what is still postponed

The A272 at Chailey Common was a one-day job on Monday 5 October: new signs and road markings between Birchlea and Rose Cottages, under temporary lights.

The A259 road studs are done. The overnight closure between Kwik Fit in Newhaven and Downland Avenue in Peacehaven ran on 14 September, and the scheme is off the council’s current works list.

Church Lane in Lewes is finished, on a published end date of Thursday 10 September, and is off the current works list.

The Wivelsfield drainage closure is still called off. The full closure planned for Green Road and Ditchling Road from 17 to 21 August did not go ahead. East Sussex Highways posted on 7 August that the drainage investigations were postponed while it reviewed the traffic management needed to do the work safely, and the job is not on the council’s list of current works, with no replacement date. When it does go ahead it needs a closure between the Church Lane junction and Nissan Barnard and Brough, diverted via the A272, the B2183 and North Common Road. Expect it to be signed on site rather than announced.

Exceat Bridge: bored piling, and no closures

The A259 crossing of the River Cuckmere at Exceat, on the edge of the Seven Sisters Country Park, is being replaced. The existing bridge dates from about 1870, is single-lane with priority to eastbound traffic, and runs on temporary traffic lights. Traffic backs up in both directions at peak times, and pedestrians have to cross the road twice to reach the footway.

The September update, still the latest on the project’s news page when we checked today, says test piling is complete on both banks and drilling of the main piles has started on the west side. Those are holes roughly 30 metres deep, filled with reinforced concrete, and the west bank work runs for about six weeks. On the east bank, work on the ditch and the road realignment carries on at the same time.

There are no road closures at Exceat. What drivers get instead is friction: while the compound is unfinished, material is being delivered straight to site more often than planned, and the council says those vehicle movements can slow traffic through the lights through the autumn.

The replacement is a two-lane bridge to the north of the current one, with proper footways and a shared space outside the Cuckmere Inn. It is funded by £7.9m from the Levelling Up Fund awarded in 2021, Bus Service Improvement Plan money reallocated by the county council’s Cabinet in 2025, and council capital. Jackson Civil Engineering was appointed to build it in February 2026.

This matters well beyond Exceat. The A259 is the coastal route linking Seaford, Newhaven, Peacehaven and Telscombe Cliffs to Eastbourne, and it carries local traffic that has no realistic alternative. It is also the road the district council is being asked to hold £2.39m of developer money for.

The routes that carry the district

Main roads through the Lewes district and where the current works are A schematic map. The A27 runs east to west across the top through Lewes towards Brighton one way and Polegate the other; it closes in both directions between Berwick and Polegate on the nights of 9 and 10 October, and eastbound between Coldean and Falmer on the night of 11 October. The A26 runs north from Lewes through the Cuilfail Tunnel towards Uckfield, and south from Lewes to Newhaven, where it closes overnight on 6, 7 and 8 October. The A275 runs north west from Lewes towards Chailey and Barcombe, where Hamsey Road is closed and the repair is held up by asbestos. The A259 runs along the coast through Peacehaven, Newhaven and Seaford to Exceat, where bored piling for the new bridge is under way. At Denton Corner in Newhaven the Seaford Road pedestrian crossing is shut until the end of November. The A26 to Newhaven shuts three more nights Schematic, not to scale. Source: East Sussex Highways scheme pages, National Highways and National Rail, checked 6 October 2026. A27 to Brighton A27 to Polegate A26 to Uckfield A275 A259 coast road LEWES Newhaven Denton Corner: crossing shut to end November Peacehaven Seaford Barcombe Falmer Hamsey Rd: asbestos, no end date Exceat: bored piling, no closures A26 Itford to Newhaven: shut 8pm to 6am, 6, 7 and 8 Oct A27: Berwick to Polegate 9 and 10 Oct; eastbound Coldean to Falmer 11 Oct The A27 and the A26 south of Beddingham are National Highways roads. Everything else here is East Sussex County Council's.
Where the district's current works sit on its four main routes.

The A27 runs east to west past Lewes, linking Brighton to Polegate and Eastbourne. It is a National Highways road, not a county one. The £75m A27 East of Lewes scheme between Firle and Polegate finished in spring 2023 and delivered a 13km shared-use path, a footbridge over the Cuckmere and junction improvements at Polegate. There is no successor scheme, so daytime delay on the A27 is traffic rather than works. What does appear is overnight maintenance and survey work, and that shows up in the National Highways closure report a week ahead.

The A26 takes traffic south to Newhaven, and north out of Lewes towards Uckfield through the Cuilfail Tunnel, which links Phoenix Causeway to the A27 at Southerham Roundabout. The tunnel is about 430 metres long, opened in 1980, and exists to keep through traffic out of the historic centre. It closes overnight roughly once every three months so the interior can be cleaned and the lighting, jet fans and drainage inspected, which cannot be done with traffic running. East Sussex Highways does not publish those dates on the tunnel page; it announces them on social media and One.Network, and signs them on site in advance.

The A275 heads north-west towards Chailey and Newick. It is currently doing duty as the diversion for the Hamsey Road closure at Barcombe, and it passes Chailey Common, where the A272 had a one-day signs and markings job on 5 October.

The A259 is the coast road, and it carries two live jobs: the Exceat Bridge rebuild and the Denton Corner scheme at Newhaven.

Parking while the works are on

The Hereward Way car park in Lewes was closed for the Church Lane works, and the published programme had it reopening on 10 September. The works are finished, but we still cannot find a council notice confirming the car park is back, so check before you rely on it.

If you are visiting the Cliffe end of town in the evening, the public car park on Harvey’s Way, BN7 2JW, is free after 5pm according to Harvey’s Brewery, whose rear yard entrance is on the same road. The district council’s own car parks operate 9am to 5pm Monday to Saturday, so they are free on Sundays and outside those hours.

Lewes has no park and ride. The realistic alternative to driving into the centre is the train, and the network is open in the daytime, though off-peak London services are still cut back. The branch from Seaford runs 37 times a day and Brighton is 14 minutes away.

How to check before you travel

East Sussex Highways publishes live roadworks through One.Network, which pulls in works from the county council, other councils and utility companies. Its highway schemes page lists the bigger jobs with start and end dates, and it is the source for most of what is above. National Highways issues a seven day closure report each week for the A27, the A23 and other trunk roads. That report lists closures only: an order that imposes a speed limit or a lane restriction without shutting the road does not appear in it.

Note who is responsible for what. Roadworks on the A27 and A23 are National Highways. Everything else in this district is East Sussex County Council, delivered by Balfour Beatty. Utility works, which are the most common cause of a set of lights appearing overnight, belong to the utility company and appear on One.Network rather than on the county’s scheme list.

Sources