M1 misery starts today
Road widening scheme includes car pool lane
How long will the misery last?
The result, said the Highways Agency, will be a four-lane motorway achieved mainly by widening the following sections:
- Junctions 6A-7 southbound
- Junctions 8-9 northbound and southbound
- Junctions 9-10 southbound
And between junctions 7 and 10, the scheme also includes a trial of the first use in the UK of motorway High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes.
Costing £289 million, the work should upgrade the road which is one of the busiest motorways in Britain, carrying over 160,000 vehicles per day. According to the Agency, work is due to get fully underway early next year but the HA didn't say how long the project would take.
Roads minister Stephen Ladyman said: "Regular users of the M1 - business and leisure travellers, hauliers, and airport traffic - will be delighted to hear that widening of this busy section of the M1 is due to start soon. Once widening is completed, the M1 between Milton Keynes and St Albans is planned to host Britain's first motorway car share lane, a dedicated lane for vehicles carrying two or more people during peak hours.
"The Highways Agency has recently appointed contractors for two more major schemes in this area - widening the M1 between junctions 10 - 13 and upgrading the A421 to dual carriageway between M1 Jct 13 and Bedford. These extra lanes will improve safety and help to reduce peak-time congestion for motorway users."
This early work involves fencing, site clearance, setting up site offices and installing temporary CCTV cameras to help motorists in the event of breakdown. There will be some temporary hard shoulder closures while this work takes place but it will not affect the main carriageway.
At the same time, the Highways Agency is starting a publicity campaign to make sure road users are informed about the widening scheme once work gets underway.
Public exhibitions will be held by the contractors Balfour Beatty Skanska Joint Venture in communities close to the motorway to explain what the work involves, when it will be taking place and how it may affect them. For drivers from further afield, the work will be publicised at key ports, airports, and motorway service areas in English, French and German.
Once work starts on the M1 carriageway in the New Year, there will be a dedicated area on the Highways Agency's website to update motorists on traffic management and associated information.
It also states that the length of the works is 10 miles, so that will no doubt become the new longest roadworks in the country, and also no doubt with a 40 limit and cameras.
I just hope work will take place all along the stretch 24 hours per day, to justify the closures and to get it done asap. I guess we'll see.
chickensoup said:
Will be OK once they drop this HOV crap
Possibly though I suspect they won't drop it until they 'discover' it is dangerous and use that as an excuse for either speed limit enforcement or lane closure.
It will be dangerous because the majority of drivers in the UK have no idea how to use 3 lanes let alone 4.
I cant see it sticking, the sheer weight of traffic, widening the road is the sensible part.
I reckon there will need to be an adjustment to motorway law to make this permissable.
If the HOV lane is to the left of the current slow lane then hardly anyone will use it because of being hemmed in by lorries and also by it it being crossed by vehicles wanting to leave the motorway or join the motorway. Also there will need to be motorway traffic law changes to allow traffic on an inside HOV lane to undertake other traffic.
If the HOV lane is not at either edge of the motorway then ..... words fail me. Surely the DOT can't be that stupid!
Will the HOV lane be limited to cars only? Or will vans be allowed if they have two occupants? What about busses and coaches? What about lorries with two occupants?
The scheme is pants.
Chris.
Lots of undertaking of 70mph-limited coaches and "HOV-lane morons" trundling along at 55mph to ensue then !
>> Edited by outnumbered on Tuesday 15th November 17:48
2 Smokin Barrels said:
cut down the number of lorries on the road.
I believe cars outnumber lorries more than 10:1. So it ain't really the problem.
I would disagree with this, because:
1. Lorries are longer and wider than cars and therefore take up more room
2. Braking distances are longer therefore they (SHOULD!) allow more clear distance in front.
3. Lorries (mostly) travel slower than cars.
4. Lorry drivers have a habit of driving level in adjacent lanes or overtaking with a slight speed advantage. This has the result of increasing congestion and backing up the traffic
5. Lorries and commercials generally cause a hell of a lot more damage to the road surface (e.g. potholes, tramlining) than cars.
Remove the lorries, you remove some of the road problem.
JJ
jazzyjeff said:
cut down the number of lorries on the road.
I believe cars outnumber lorries more than 10:1. So it ain't really the problem.
Remove the lorries, you remove some of the road problem.
JJ
Of course that's true.
My point was, when you tackle a problem you don't usually start with the smallest element.
Plus:
1) If you've got something, it almost certainly came in a lorry
2) Most (if not all) lorry journies are doing something essential. A lot of car journies are people being lazy buggers.
3) There won't be railway lines going from the docks to the High St.
If 95% of the traffic is cars, then perhaps 15% of the problem (allowing for the factors you mention above) is due to trucks.
jazzyjeff said:Have you never noticed that when traffic backs up, the smoothest flowing lane is the left hand lane? ie, the one with all the lorries in?
cut down the number of lorries on the road.
I believe cars outnumber lorries more than 10:1. So it ain't really the problem.
I would disagree with this, because:
1. Lorries are longer and wider than cars and therefore take up more room
2. Braking distances are longer therefore they (SHOULD!) allow more clear distance in front.
3. Lorries (mostly) travel slower than cars.
4. Lorry drivers have a habit of driving level in adjacent lanes or overtaking with a slight speed advantage. This has the result of increasing congestion and backing up the traffic
5. Lorries and commercials generally cause a hell of a lot more damage to the road surface (e.g. potholes, tramlining) than cars.
Remove the lorries, you remove some of the road problem.
JJ
The worst lane tends to be the right hand lane, which is purely cars/small vans. It doesn't flow so well since in the same space a one lorry you might have three cars - with the associated reaction times and stopping distances, along with people following too close, the lane is very stop-start.
I just sit in the left lane on my 2 junction motorway trip home and still leave the motorway at about the same time as the cars in the right lane.
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