Why are roadworks so badly managed?
Discussion
Crossflow Kid said:
irocfan said:
<ahem> crossrail <ahem>
Yes, but that’s a new-build so they’re not actually delaying existing journey times.
king weekend for the last 5 years (at least it feels like it!!) for at least another year, rail replacement service due to 'engineering works'Sheepshanks said:
Johnnytheboy said:
Thank God the people upgrading trunk roads don't do what now seems to be the norm with non-trunk roads: just shut the bloody thing and send you on an official diversion of about thirty miles.
They often do at night!In Dorset it's like "We are resurfacing this really hard to avoid A road, so we are shutting it for two months. Please follow our moronic diversion."
Johnnytheboy said:
Thank God the people upgrading trunk roads don't do what now seems to be the norm with non-trunk roads: just shut the bloody thing and send you on an official diversion of about thirty miles.
What are they supposed to do - have you drive through the dug-up road?I do feel sorry for the highways departments sometimes, people complain about the state of the roads -and- about the inconvenience of having them fixed, as if someone can wave a magic wand and have the road fixed at no inconvenience or cost to anybody!
If the world works like that, can I have a shiny new Jensen FF, please?
Gojira said:
What are they supposed to do - have you drive through the dug-up road?
I do feel sorry for the highways departments sometimes, people complain about the state of the roads -and- about the inconvenience of having them fixed, as if someone can wave a magic wand and have the road fixed at no inconvenience or cost to anybody!
If the world works like that, can I have a shiny new Jensen FF, please?
What they used to do: do one side at once. Controlled by traffic lights. I do feel sorry for the highways departments sometimes, people complain about the state of the roads -and- about the inconvenience of having them fixed, as if someone can wave a magic wand and have the road fixed at no inconvenience or cost to anybody!
If the world works like that, can I have a shiny new Jensen FF, please?
Johnnytheboy said:
What they used to do: do one side at once. Controlled by traffic lights.
Yep, and then people are complaining about the roadworks for twice as long.Not to mention the bell-ends who ignore the traffic lights.
Basically, whatever the Highways guys do, someone will complain!
)Gojira said:
Johnnytheboy said:
What they used to do: do one side at once. Controlled by traffic lights.
Yep, and then people are complaining about the roadworks for twice as long.Not to mention the bell-ends who ignore the traffic lights.
Basically, whatever the Highways guys do, someone will complain!
Dorset Council spunked money on road resurfacing in North Dorset this summer. There wasn't one point where every A road in the area was open at once, I swear.
And so it staggers on......
Epic fuxkwittery on that favourite cake & arse party of Highways England known as the M3.
Over the weekend some overpaid underworked contractors needed to polish the cats eyes or straighten the white lines or something on the M3 exit to the M25(S) which, obviously, meant closing lots of motorway. Yay!
So, on the approach to the junction, the M3 is four lanes wide.
L1&2 go towards the M25(North), lane 3 splits and heads towards the M25(South) and also continues as the M3 towards London along with Lane 4.
So which bit was closed the most to allow work to take place on the M25(S) entry slip?
That’s right.
Lanes 1&2, the feeder lanes for the M25(N).
Everything got shovelled in to Lanes 3&4, just to be chicaned back in to Lanes 1&2 on reaching the actual closure.
Not only that, the works only blocked 25% of the lanes yet the dullards feel the need to close 50% of the lanes on the approach.
Grade A bellends who couldn’t empty a welly full of water if the instruction were written on the sole.
Epic fuxkwittery on that favourite cake & arse party of Highways England known as the M3.
Over the weekend some overpaid underworked contractors needed to polish the cats eyes or straighten the white lines or something on the M3 exit to the M25(S) which, obviously, meant closing lots of motorway. Yay!
So, on the approach to the junction, the M3 is four lanes wide.
L1&2 go towards the M25(North), lane 3 splits and heads towards the M25(South) and also continues as the M3 towards London along with Lane 4.
So which bit was closed the most to allow work to take place on the M25(S) entry slip?
That’s right.
Lanes 1&2, the feeder lanes for the M25(N).
Everything got shovelled in to Lanes 3&4, just to be chicaned back in to Lanes 1&2 on reaching the actual closure.
Not only that, the works only blocked 25% of the lanes yet the dullards feel the need to close 50% of the lanes on the approach.
Grade A bellends who couldn’t empty a welly full of water if the instruction were written on the sole.
Reading this thread is like listening to someone claiming to be an expert software developer because they once used a PC.
Just because you once drove on a road doesn't mean you understand the first thing abut building or maintaining them.
Putting a Lane 3 closure on with live traffic on either side would be suicidally dangerous for the traffic management crew and would also result in large numbers of halfwit drivers coming through the cones. The layout used is designed to start marshalling the traffic flow well before the junction and give drivers enough time to get in the right lane. Admittedly this doesn't always work perfectly as the the halfwit driver population is quite large and will insist on being in the wrong lane. However experience shows that this is the safest and least disruptive way to put on a closure at a complex and busy motorway junction. If you want a working road network, I'm afraid you're going to have to put up with some delays or start looking at extended total closures which might not be popular.
As for the idea that contractors are underworked and overpaid, I suggest looking at the public accounts of some of them. Big turnover, very small margins and regularly going bust is a more accurate description.
Just because you once drove on a road doesn't mean you understand the first thing abut building or maintaining them.Putting a Lane 3 closure on with live traffic on either side would be suicidally dangerous for the traffic management crew and would also result in large numbers of halfwit drivers coming through the cones. The layout used is designed to start marshalling the traffic flow well before the junction and give drivers enough time to get in the right lane. Admittedly this doesn't always work perfectly as the the halfwit driver population is quite large and will insist on being in the wrong lane. However experience shows that this is the safest and least disruptive way to put on a closure at a complex and busy motorway junction. If you want a working road network, I'm afraid you're going to have to put up with some delays or start looking at extended total closures which might not be popular.
As for the idea that contractors are underworked and overpaid, I suggest looking at the public accounts of some of them. Big turnover, very small margins and regularly going bust is a more accurate description.
Vlad the Imp said:
Putting a Lane 3 closure on with live traffic on either side would be suicidally dangerous for the traffic management crew
Hate to break it to you but that happened anyway Not only that....
Due to the M3/M25 interchange being a sea of orange over the weekend the cone boundaries just blurred in to one and it was simply impossible to see where the gap to cross back on to lanes 1&2 towards M25(N) actually was. Yeah, really “safe” that was.
Still, you guys know waaaaaaaay better, obviously.
Vlad the Imp said:
As for the idea that contractors are underworked and overpaid, I suggest looking at the public accounts of some of them. Big turnover, very small margins and regularly going bust is a more accurate description.
Fair play.Those welfare units can’t be cheap to run and god knows there are enough of them.
Renting JCBs just to let them sit idle must cost a bit too.
Vlad the Imp said:
I bow to your superior knowledge, clearly a career in unloading the luggage from helicopters has made you more of an expert in highway maintenance than an entire industry put together.
Get it right. I supervised the unloading.
And in fairness, given the s
tshow on the M3 this weekend you’re probably right.I hear there’s a bloke laying out cones near Winchester right now in preparation for painting the footbridge at Fleet services.
Safety first. Actual work......five miles later.
Vlad the Imp said:
I bow to your superior knowledge, clearly a career in unloading the luggage from helicopters has made you more of an expert in highway maintenance than an entire industry put together.
Quite. I had been wondering what Crossflow did that gave him such knowledge and insight on this subject.
Zarco said:
Vlad the Imp said:
I bow to your superior knowledge, clearly a career in unloading the luggage from helicopters has made you more of an expert in highway maintenance than an entire industry put together.
Quite. I had been wondering what Crossflow did that gave him such knowledge and insight on this subject.
popeyewhite said:
Drive the nation's roads like the rest of us? It's rammed home countless times on any number of journeys on any kind of road just how much the motorist is delayed by nonsensical roadworks, unattended roadworks, unnecessary lights etc
Oh hush now. You’ll have them spilling their tea in the welfare unit.The unattended works issue is probably the most prevalent, and always met with the same b
ks.....“Yes, well it’s just that it’s easier for us just to leave all the cones where they are while we wait six weeks for the next phase.
You wouldn’t understand.
And on top of that. Safety.
”Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 29th October 15:35
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