M62 "smart" motorway near Leeds - westbound issues

[Dog Star]

(I've deliberately posted this in GG, mods, as the Yorkshire forum is rather quiet, and I suspect that a good number of Manchester/Lancashire people have had trouble with this).

Regular M62 commuters who go westbound past Leeds on the M62 will have noticed that the hard shoulder has not been "live" for the past few weeks; this has been causing some quite nasty jams.

It's also been very frustrating - knowing that the facility is there for everyone to be zooming along and to see the lane closed, for no apparent reason; no signs, nothing on the matrix boards, just a big red "X" above the hard shoulder.

So I emailed the Highways Agency and, surprisingly, they've come back rather quickly...

HA Email said:

Good Morning,

Thank you for your e-mail to the Highways Agency Information Line dated 09/05/14 regarding M62 J27 - J26 Managed Motorway.

Unfortunately there has been a critical technical fault with the signalling system that has prevented us from opening the hard shoulder / smart motorway between J27 & J26 M62. We were unable to open this section as it would be unsafe to do so.

Engineers did attend on Friday 02/05/14 to fix this but found that the repair was unsuccessful. Engineers tried to fix it again Tuesday night 06/05/14 but were unable to rectify the fault. We have been advised that on Saturday morning 10/05/14 a repair has now fixed the issue.

The teams involved were aware of the disruption this was causing and were franticly working to get this problem fixed. It was treated as an urgent matter, with some very senior managers getting involved.

We are hoping the recent repair has now permanently fixed the issue and we should see no more issues with the technology in this area meaning less disruption to motorists.

I hope that this helps with your enquiry. If you have any further questions regarding this or any other Highways Agency issue please do not hesitate to contact us on our 24 hour information line on 0300 123 5000. Alternatively please E-mail us at [e-mail] or access our website where information on all Highways Agency policies and procedures can be found: http://www.highways.gov.uk

Kind Regards

[Tonsko]

'Some very senior managers were involved'... No doubt not actually helping, just making life harder for the techs trying to fix it.

Cynically, the problem probably arose because of said senior managers cutting corners and not listening to said techs in the first place.

[10 Pence Short]

I sm similarly afflicted by the M62 / M1. I do wonder why they need more than a year and 35 miles or so of 50mph roadworks to install some concrete reservation and electronic signs?

[littleredrooster]

HA Email said:

...It was treated as an urgent matter, with some very senior managers getting involved...

This is the very definition of the word 'clusterfk'.