Road closures - Why???

[MarkwG]

henrycrun said:

If we had 'Presumed Liability' it could make fatal crash surveys quicker.

No thanks: & not sure how that would help vehicle to vehicle incidents as described in the OP anyway.

[bigandclever]

JensenA said:

in the incident I described, the road was closed for over 24 hours. No consideration was given to the thousands of motorists it affected. As I've already said, Grimsby is the busiest UK freight port in the UK, there is no 'real' alternative route that anyone can take, so all traffic was forced to travel along minor B roads for over 24 hours. Please don't tell me the Police need a road closed for 24 hours to investigate why a val crashed into the back of a truck!.

The eastbound carriageway was opened 2 hours after the crash.
The westbound carriageway was opened 16 hours after.
The fire from the crash melted some of the road so had to be ‘made safe’..
You got to go home (eventually) some poor fker didn’t and I’m sure his family would like to know why.

[the tribester]

Has the OP not thought of getting a Sat Nav with live updates?

Even the free Google Maps app on a phone will show delays ahead and alternate routes, it worked brilliantly for me heading to Cornwall at the weekend, taking me down the A38 instead of the A30 which was blocked,
or does he want a whole Police Force on personal point duty at every road junction in the county to see him home?

[Superleg48]

JensenA said:

in the incident I described, the road was closed for over 24 hours. No consideration was given to the thousands of motorists it affected. As I've already said, Grimsby is the busiest UK freight port in the UK, there is no 'real' alternative route that anyone can take, so all traffic was forced to travel along minor B roads for over 24 hours. Please don't tell me the Police need a road closed for 24 hours to investigate why a val crashed into the back of a truck!
When the A1 was closed, again everyone had to take a detour through country lanes. Zero consideration is given to motorists. If one carriageway is closed - and why it is closed is another question - then the other carriageway should be used, at least the traffic can keep flowing.
The point is WHY do they close the roads. Answer, they close them because there is no consideration to the road users.

It does sound like you had a nightmare journey, which must have been significantly inconvenient. Probably less inconvenient though than that felt by the relatives of the fatality or indeed the victim themselves, who quite probably did not intend to die that morning.

Is it also not reasonable to say that in reality such excessive delays and misfortune in ones daily travels are relatively rare and that generally we are able to get about reasonably unimpeded?

[henrycrun]

Repeat of the Crash Detectives
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b0b056g3?su...

[Phil.]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Troll alert - see when he created the account and his contribution to other threads

[saaby93]

the tribester said:

Has the OP not thought of getting a Sat Nav with live updates?

It doesnt work like that
Google maps or whaver sees there are no delays on that piece of road while all the suroounding roads have slow moving traffic so thinks whoopee and tries to route you through it

Its only when you get there you find out why there are no delays on it and why everything else is clogged up

[Muddle238]

• thread bump **

The local council has closed a major A road through the local village for roadworks, for a two month period. Two whole bloody months, however that's not the irritating part...

They've set a diversion. Fine, but it's miles out of the way and starts/finishes about 10 miles apart either side of the affected village. Which is no use to us locals who may want to get from one side of the village to the other. Theoretically the official diversion involves 20 miles of driving. However being local, there are local country lanes which are unaffected by the works in the village to use and for cars and vans it's no problem, these rural lanes normally only used by tractors and the locals getting to/from their homes, such as me. However the company doing the roadworks has decided that instead of putting resources into the roadworks, they will have three vans and half a dozen half wits in hi viz stationed several miles along the A-road setting up road blocks, preventing traffic from getting near the actual closure.

Fair enough for HGVs, which need the space to turn around but it's really starting to grind for the locals, every time you come up on one of these road blocks it's like an interview with the hi viz half wits, you half to explain to them that you live along one of the multitude of roads they're closing off which is being closed purely to prevent traffic from using any road other than the official diversion, even if you live along one of these lanes. Half the time they stand in front of your vehicle telling you that you can't go any further, half the time they tell you "just this once" - having to ask permission from these wannabe traffic officers just to be able to proceed to your own home is really pissing everyone off. Why they can't just pile resources into the roadworks and get the road open instead of wasting it policing the surrounding lanes is beyond me.

Vent over, thank you for listening.

[FiF]

Muddle238 said:

** thread bump **

The local council has closed a major A road through the local village for roadworks, for a two month period. Two whole bloody months, however that's not the irritating part...

They've set a diversion. Fine, but it's miles out of the way and starts/finishes about 10 miles apart either side of the affected village. Which is no use to us locals who may want to get from one side of the village to the other. Theoretically the official diversion involves 20 miles of driving. However being local, there are local country lanes which are unaffected by the works in the village to use and for cars and vans it's no problem, these rural lanes normally only used by tractors and the locals getting to/from their homes, such as me. However the company doing the roadworks has decided that instead of putting resources into the roadworks, they will have three vans and half a dozen half wits in hi viz stationed several miles along the A-road setting up road blocks, preventing traffic from getting near the actual closure.

Fair enough for HGVs, which need the space to turn around but it's really starting to grind for the locals, every time you come up on one of these road blocks it's like an interview with the hi viz half wits, you half to explain to them that you live along one of the multitude of roads they're closing off which is being closed purely to prevent traffic from using any road other than the official diversion, even if you live along one of these lanes. Half the time they stand in front of your vehicle telling you that you can't go any further, half the time they tell you "just this once" - having to ask permission from these wannabe traffic officers just to be able to proceed to your own home is really pissing everyone off. Why they can't just pile resources into the roadworks and get the road open instead of wasting it policing the surrounding lanes is beyond me.

Vent over, thank you for listening.

I suggest you report this to the council, they should have an agreement with the contractors as to what they, the contractors, can and cannot do.

I reported one set who were not doing what required, in this case they'd set up a set of lights which were supposed to be manually controlled in line with the traffic flows. Actually they had just set some timers and monitored or altered square root of nothing.

Council sorted them out in a few hours and imposed a fine.

If the contractor is doing what they are required by the council ten your next stop is your councillor.

[PaoloMey]

Why close an entire highway if you just could leave on lane open?
The rest of Europe does it that way, does England swim always against the current?

[Shakermaker]

PaoloMey said:

Why close an entire highway if you just could leave on lane open?
The rest of Europe does it that way, does England swim always against the current?

Erm... that is what they do, in my experience at least.

Driven past some pretty horrendous looking crashes in the past where we've all had to filter down to a single lane

Perhaps the fact that they have to close the entire road is indicative of how serious an incident they are dealing with? Especially those cases where the road is severely damaged or has something spilled on to it

[MarkwG]

Shakermaker said:

Erm... that is what they do, in my experience at least.

Generally mine too: when not, it's usually because it's physically not possible to pass until the debris has been cleared, or they need the space to land the helicopter - landing on the mway is quicker than hunting for a field without obstructions.