What a surprise! M3 upgrades to over-run!

[Vlad the Imp]

DJT said:

Worse still, down near J4/J4a there was a crew of workers boarding a minibus to take them to their part of the site to start work. We pretty much travelled the length of the roadworks side-by-side. Me queueing, them navigating men in diggers with their associated fan clubs/groupies.

Now, bear in mind I was held up in that section for nearly an hour (09:00 - 10:00). So it took the van crew the best part of that to get to their place of work. I can only assume that, come 15:00 they need to start getting ready for the return trip!

This is the whole reason why it's taking so long to do the work. If we could shut the motorway for say 4 months and get the job done all the contractors would be happy, however I suspect the public might have some objections to that approach. Most of the work as actually being done at night as it's the only time we can move the traffic management, close a few more lanes and get enough room to do some work.

As for the comments about it being the contractor's fault that the end date has dropped back, I suspect that it has rather more to do with the fact that the scope of works has changed.

[Mr Tidy]

Trevatanus said:

An absolute f***ing joke.
We have had to put up with this st which was (according to the last sign I read) due to finish December 2016, now it's summer 2017.

http://www.gethampshire.co.uk/news/local-news/m3-s...

I just read this thread again as I saw the recent post, and I noticed the comment above about the alleged December 2016 finish! I have been using the M3 every week from J4 to J2 for the last 4+ years, and I am sure I only saw this sign once before it got removed! (Probably in early 2015)!

I watched a TV programme recently about the Forth Road bridge - it only took 6 years to build that 50 years ago! Progress - if only!

[DJT]

Mr Tidy said:

Trevatanus said:

An absolute f***ing joke.
We have had to put up with this st which was (according to the last sign I read) due to finish December 2016, now it's summer 2017.

http://www.gethampshire.co.uk/news/local-news/m3-s...

I just read this thread again as I saw the recent post, and I noticed the comment above about the alleged December 2016 finish! I have been using the M3 every week from J4 to J2 for the last 4+ years, and I am sure I only saw this sign once before it got removed! (Probably in early 2015)!

I watched a TV programme recently about the Forth Road bridge - it only took 6 years to build that 50 years ago! Progress - if only!

I did see it for a while, but maybe it disappeared about the time it was rebranded from a 'Managed Motorway' to a 'Smart Motorway'. The Ramp Metering implementation turned out to be a waste of money, so I'm not hopefull about the success of the Smart Motorway. Whether 3 or 4 or 94 lanes, what causes the delays, aside from accidents, is the bottle-necks on and off the motorway, e.g. I'm just expecting 4 lanes of queues, instead of 3, up to J2. UNLESS this type of junction is SUCCESSFULLY re-engineered, so as not to send waves of queuing traffic back down the motorway.

One thing that needs to be done is to get drivers to commit to M25 clockwise or anti-clockwise some way in advance of the M25, not where the actual slip road splits into two, but physically segregate the traffic somewhere bewteen J3 and J2. Then at least the negative interaction of queues on one side only of the M25 only affect a portion of the M3 flow. Same wiht M25 to M3.

[bracken78]

DJT said:

I did see it for a while, but maybe it disappeared about the time it was rebranded from a 'Managed Motorway' to a 'Smart Motorway'. The Ramp Metering implementation turned out to be a waste of money, so I'm not hopefull about the success of the Smart Motorway. Whether 3 or 4 or 94 lanes, what causes the delays, aside from accidents, is the bottle-necks on and off the motorway, e.g. I'm just expecting 4 lanes of queues, instead of 3, up to J2. UNLESS this type of junction is SUCCESSFULLY re-engineered, so as not to send waves of queuing traffic back down the motorway.

One thing that needs to be done is to get drivers to commit to M25 clockwise or anti-clockwise some way in advance of the M25, not where the actual slip road splits into two, but physically segregate the traffic somewhere bewteen J3 and J2. Then at least the negative interaction of queues on one side only of the M25 only affect a portion of the M3 flow. Same wiht M25 to M3.

I agree with what you have written. The same can be said for the A3 M25 junctions. Big ques most mornings which if your heading over the M25 are a little frustrating.