Roadworks

[tommytaylor]

Is it me or is there an explosion of roadworks with temporary lights at the moment, around where I live they are absolutely everywhere, our town was in practical lockdown this morning after yet another set sprang up on the only road left out of town that didn't have any yesterday. It was pretty bad, drivers were having to do u-turns further blocking the road just to try and find another way out.

Further more all the sets that have sprung up have all been 3 or 4 way controlled ones, you never used to see that anywhere but recently they are on every set which means the traffic has to wait 4 times longer for a green even though 2 of the sets are on minor roads that have virtually no traffic.

I've often heard the myth that the councils have to spend the budget by April to get the same or greater allocation in the next year but here we are again approaching April and the councils are spending money like its going out of fashion. Or the other alternative myth that they are creating traffic chaos to bump up the Co2 to justify road charging. Even if its just gross incompetency they are doing a great job in whipping up the conspiracies.

[ScoobyChris]

Councils burning through their remaining budgets? Noticed a flurry of potholes being (badly) repaired recently too.

Chris

[Riley Blue]

Or could it be they'd had to delay repairs due to the bad weather and are now getting them all done?

[stogbandard]

Mad March and a draw full of spare fivers to spend.

Unless you live in Northants and it’s the end of the financial years and the the spare bit left over is a profit for the organisation contracted to “manage” the network.

[CoolHands]

I think they go through phases. We had a long period where gas was replacing massive pipes all the way down the centre of a main road, just went on for months as they moved to different sections with absolute traffic control carnage

[PaulD86]

It's local authority dependant, but some budgets (there are usually multiple for roads) don't carry over so sometimes there will be a push as budgets can be use it or lose it.

Winter is when the greatest road network deterioration occurs and this time of year is the start of the new surfacing season - weather wise there is a window for when you want to do most surfacing.

The main resurfacing list was probably written around a year ago as these are generally put to council committee by the roads department for approval. A year ago Putin's invasion of Ukraine sent oil product prices rocketing, including the bitumen we make roads from. There were questions on supply for a brief time too. So programmes have probably been priced to factor in potential material cost rises which happened initially, but have now clamed. This may leave an authority with an underspend they need to use.

I've yet to deal with a local authority which uses roadworks to create congestion to artificially drive up CO2 to justify low emission zone, but those of a vaccines cause autism and man didn't land on the moon disposition may well hold such beliefs. Low emission zones are generally politically motivated, but these decisions are not made by the teams who manage the maintenance of the roads (though those teams will be istructed to install them (often against their desires)).

I can't say why there are so many in your particular area, however you may be surprised how few roads you have to work on to cause big traffic problems. You may also be surprised how many people complain to their LA that their road need resurfaced and then also complain when it is closed for resurfacing - I dearly wish I was making that up!

[tommytaylor]

Just to follow up my thread the roadworks going on are showing no signs of abating, in fact they are getting worse and worse. Is there any sort of law that says enough is enough? There is one road in particular that is way worse than any other, in the ten years I have lived in this area I'm not exaggerating when I say a 3 mile trunk road has had roadworks/traffic lights on it once a month every month for the last 10 years now.
What happens is it gets dug up for various utilities, at the moment its electricity Northwest, they have been digging it up in various spots for the last 2 years, then it gets so bad it needs resurfacing so that's more roadworks, they the gas company dig it up for a couple more years, then it needs resurfacing again. This gets rinsed and repeated for as long as I can remember.

The residents in both the towns it connects together are at their wits end with it all, it adds a good hour onto everyone's journey, surely it cant be something that is just tough luck and its something they have to put up with for ever more, surely there must be a limit as to how many times they take over the road. I wouldn't mind but there are fields either side of the road, why don't they buy the field, build a road in it and dig that one up if they are obsessed with digging holes in roads?

I've tried writing to the various authorities about it but the highways department just said "wrong department" and ENW said "its for the greater good" but don't worry they will finish in a couple of days. then they started a new hole 100 yards away, these are due to last until 7th April but I can guarantee they will start another set just a bit further along after that.

I feel like doing a "falling down" and giving them something to actually fix.

[Riley Blue]

What would you prefer, traffic holdups or a more rapidly crumbling utilities infrastructure?

[Tribal Chestnut]

Riley Blue said:

Or could it be they'd had to delay repairs due to the bad weather and are now getting them all done?

Because bad weather in the winter is unexpected.

And last summer was so wet and frosty as to make any kind of civils work unviable.

I think you have a good point.

(though the drought would have exacerbated the need for some works tbf)

Back to the OP, it seems where once a few cones would be used for a small repair, that now necessitates full-on traffic mgmt, even for a quiet route with plenty of space.

Rarely used business premises nr the road works? Let’s give them their own set of lights.

It is a serious farce.

[PaulD86]

tommytaylor said:

Just to follow up my thread the roadworks going on are showing no signs of abating, in fact they are getting worse and worse. Is there any sort of law that says enough is enough? There is one road in particular that is way worse than any other, in the ten years I have lived in this area I'm not exaggerating when I say a 3 mile trunk road has had roadworks/traffic lights on it once a month every month for the last 10 years now.
What happens is it gets dug up for various utilities, at the moment its electricity Northwest, they have been digging it up in various spots for the last 2 years, then it gets so bad it needs resurfacing so that's more roadworks, they the gas company dig it up for a couple more years, then it needs resurfacing again. This gets rinsed and repeated for as long as I can remember.

Trunk roads are Highways England responsibility rather than the local authority.

You've hit on one of the big problems. Back in the day only the road authority could dig up roads. Then the law was changed so that utility companies could, but they have to guarantee their reinstatements. For 2 or 3 years. So they dig up the roads, reinstate them badly, but unless this fails in a couple of years, there is nothing the authority can do. And even if it does, it is far from straightforward to get a utility to go back and repair. So roads are dug up more frequently than they should be, reinstated badly and ultimately fail massively prematurely. The change to the law was to make utilities more profitable vs having to pay the roads authority to do the job. It has worked well... for those with shares in utility companies.