M23 - new smart motorway planned

[dcb]

Not content with years of roadworks on the M4, M3 and M25,
those *lovely* folks at Highways England have decided that
it is the turn of the M23 to be smartified. Deep joy, not.

Two years of roadworks - that'll put a smile on every user
of Gatwick Airport - and the net result will be lots
of speed cameras and no hard shoulder.

£158.4 million for 11 miles of motorway "enhancement".
I can think of better things to spend that amount of money on.

I hope the badgers enjoy their time in the publicity spotlight.

More details here:

http://roads.highways.gov.uk/projects/m23-junction...

[dcb]

jamoor said:

Smart motorways are actually a good idea.

There's a first time for everything, and you are the first person I've ever
heard praising smart motorways.

When chatting to folks, I find SM are universally derided as a complete
waste of money., brains and time (WOMBAT).

Back on topic, I find it odd that the M23 is being smartified, thus solving
a non-existent problem, when the M25 in the area of Leatherhead is in a very poor state.

The lane expansion from three to four seemly went badly, leaving a confusing
mix of the old lane markers and the new lane markers.

I've had a few near misses in that area, and I've seen plenty of vehicles weaving about,
trying to keep in the four lanes, not three. The fact that the surface is concrete and
so is reflective when the Sun is low in the sky for an hour or two each morning
and evening only makes a bad situation worse.

Other chunks of the M25, which merely have concrete surface but don't have
the three to four lane marking problem, are a much smaller, but significant, problem.

From my point of view, Highways England seem to be solving non-existent
problems on the M23, when nearby very real problems on the M25 aren't even addressed.

Let's not forget that local roads are on a different budget, so their currently rotten state
can't be addressed by Highways England.

It comes to something when BMW Germany have to send their suspension engineers
to England to gather data to tune their cars sold in England to the poor state of
England's roads.