Common Sense Fail

[Smiler.]

So the local Gas Co. jonnies are digging up the carriageway of a local road.

In their unfettered wisdom, the have set up some temp traffic lights 20m from a fixed set at a bridge (the road does a proper Z so no view of anything on the other side).

Both fixed & temporary sets are in operation, meaning that a green light on the fixed set south of the bridge is met with a red light north on the temp set.


Gridlock beckons.


Do the council need to give approval based on specifics or will "dig up road between x & y" suffice?


I also note that by the time they had erected orange barriers, lights & all, it was nearly tea-break, which was nearly knocking-off time so by half three, not much was happening.

I accept that being self-employed, "lunch is for poofs", although looking at me, you never guess that.

[jagracer]

We had this at the end of our road, Thames Water workers wanted to set up lights as they were digging the road up, local council said no, it's too near the fixed lights at the crossroads, again about 20-30metres away. Water workers then took umbridge and decided they'd start work at midnight using pneumatic drills waking loads of us up. We complained to the council, council stopped them working so they then drove a 32ton gulley sucker truck over the edge of the working and collapsed the sewers, they then fked off and left it for two weeks.
This all ended up in us getting no sleep for a night or two, no access to one end of our road for a couple of weeks and a big court case where local council sued Thames water, TW were fined so all we got was inconvenience and no doubt eventually a rate increase to cover the fine.

[darren f]

Smiler. said:

Do the council need to give approval based on specifics or will "dig up road between x & y" suffice?

Every job (unless it is an emergency, meaning peril to life or limb) has to be 'pre-noticed' to the local highway authority. This usually takes the form of 'between Address 1 and Address 2'. Your local HA should have been on the ball if there are particular site issues in that location and should asked for a formal traffic management plan from the contractor. This of course assumes the job has been 'noticed' correctly in the first place (and in this case it sounds doubtful- gas? Emergency work maybe?). Even if it is, the contractor should have a Streetworks accredited supervisor in charge who should take control and arrange suitable measures to manage the traffic safely and effectively, otherwise he should not have allowed the job to continue.

Smiler. said:

Both fixed & temporary sets are in operation, meaning that a green light on the fixed set south of the bridge is met with a red light north on the temp set.

The usual course of action is to get HA approval and arrange for the permanent to be switched off and covered over, with positive traffic management put in place to guide traffic and pedestrians safely past the work. A quick call to your local authority responsible for highway planning should quickly sort things- if there is a dangerous situation the highway inspector responsible should be on the contractor's case quite quickly.

[Smiler.]

darren f said:

Smiler. said:

Do the council need to give approval based on specifics or will "dig up road between x & y" suffice?

Every job (unless it is an emergency, meaning peril to life or limb) has to be 'pre-noticed' to the local highway authority. This usually takes the form of 'between Address 1 and Address 2'. Your local HA should have been on the ball if there are particular site issues in that location and should asked for a formal traffic management plan from the contractor. This of course assumes the job has been 'noticed' correctly in the first place (and in this case it sounds doubtful- gas? Emergency work maybe?). Even if it is, the contractor should have a Streetworks accredited supervisor in charge who should take control and arrange suitable measures to manage the traffic safely and effectively, otherwise he should not have allowed the job to continue.

Smiler. said:

Both fixed & temporary sets are in operation, meaning that a green light on the fixed set south of the bridge is met with a red light north on the temp set.

The usual course of action is to get HA approval and arrange for the permanent to be switched off and covered over, with positive traffic management put in place to guide traffic and pedestrians safely past the work. A quick call to your local authority responsible for highway planning should quickly sort things- if there is a dangerous situation the highway inspector responsible should be on the contractor's case quite quickly.

Yes, you along with me would like to think so. Not a bit of it. They were all busy & I was given the Gas Emergency Helpline number to call.

The last time I had reason to contact the council to complain was when contractors helpfully left a trail of gravel on a small roundabout. The contractors couldn't seem to understand my objection to that either.

It seems like typical British lazy-bast buck passing.

[BFG TERRANO]

Smiler. said:

darren f said:

Smiler. said:

Do the council need to give approval based on specifics or will "dig up road between x & y" suffice?

Every job (unless it is an emergency, meaning peril to life or limb) has to be 'pre-noticed' to the local highway authority. This usually takes the form of 'between Address 1 and Address 2'. Your local HA should have been on the ball if there are particular site issues in that location and should asked for a formal traffic management plan from the contractor. This of course assumes the job has been 'noticed' correctly in the first place (and in this case it sounds doubtful- gas? Emergency work maybe?). Even if it is, the contractor should have a Streetworks accredited supervisor in charge who should take control and arrange suitable measures to manage the traffic safely and effectively, otherwise he should not have allowed the job to continue.

Smiler. said:

Both fixed & temporary sets are in operation, meaning that a green light on the fixed set south of the bridge is met with a red light north on the temp set.

The usual course of action is to get HA approval and arrange for the permanent to be switched off and covered over, with positive traffic management put in place to guide traffic and pedestrians safely past the work. A quick call to your local authority responsible for highway planning should quickly sort things- if there is a dangerous situation the highway inspector responsible should be on the contractor's case quite quickly.

Yes, you along with me would like to think so. Not a bit of it. They were all busy & I was given the Gas Emergency Helpline number to call.

The last time I had reason to contact the council to complain was when contractors helpfully left a trail of gravel on a small roundabout. The contractors couldn't seem to understand my objection to that either.

It seems like typical British lazy-bast buck passing.

The works need to comply with Section 8. A long winded waffle but from what ive read im suprised the other lights are not switched off and the whole area not enclosed in the temp lights? Or at very least manually operated so the operator can monitor traffic flow... or lack of?

[Smiler.]

BFG TERRANO said:

The works need to comply with Section 8. A long winded waffle but from what ive read im suprised the other lights are not switched off and the whole area not enclosed in the temp lights? Or at very least manually operated so the operator can monitor traffic flow... or lack of?

Well that is what I thought, bloody obvious really. Either way, chronic lack of something.



PS: you don't seen a spare steel wheel/tyre for your Terrano do you?

[BFG TERRANO]

Smiler. said:

Well that is what I thought, bloody obvious really. Either way, chronic lack of something.



PS: you don't seen a spare steel wheel/tyre for your Terrano do you?

kitted up on the tyre front but thanks for the offer!

[Smiler.]

I wasn't going to add to this thread, but the supervisor chap from the SGN roadworks team called me to explain that they had requested temporary lights located to match the fixed ones & to cover the fixed ones with hoods but the council wouldn't consent.

In the end, this is what they did.

This morning, the temporary lights were not working, no sign of any working workmen. Chaos ensued.

I then got this reply from them

SGN said:

With reference to your email dated 07.09.12 regarding the faulty lights located in Stanlake Lane Ruscombe Berkshire
I can confirm that the lights are now working.

I have spoken to the Team Manager and have discovered that the lights are diesel operated and as such, the team have experienced difficulties as the fuel is being syphoned off by certain individuals in the local area.

The team were on site but on discovery of the fuel shortage they were in the process of collecting more fuel.

I would have thought leaving 2 chaps on site to ease congestion would have been a better tactic.


There are several DAYL "settlements" in the area, but I'm sure it has nothing to do with them.

Tossers