Roadworks rant

[Gaz]

I live just off the A48 in Gloucestershire, the A48 is a main trunk road from South Wales to Gloucester and near my house we have one side of the road closed and temporary traffic lights.

The reason for this is that Severn Trent Water are carrying out maintenance/repair work, pretty good reason to close a road you may think, we all need water. However the precise reason for this closure is a 3' x 2' hole on the pavement

Closing one lane of a main trunk road for 24 hours (so far) in order to dig a small hole on a pavement? Seriously?

[Pigmy Pony]

Probably to enable pedestrians to avoid the hole and use part of the road as a right of way. Although anyone thick enough to miss the signs and barriers around said hole deserve to fall in it and have the hole filled in before they can get out.

As with a lot of things these days the fear of Health & Safety and the chance of some dumbass coming to harm, with subsequent lawsuits, trumps convenience. And don't forget there are some out there who will actively seek out ways to get some free money, and don't care if it entails potential serious injury - they weren't planning on going to work anyway. The lazy little shits can't even be arse to call it a compensation claim, and abbreviate it to 'compo'.

That's me wound up now, I'll be in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

[Ali Tait]

It’s a pain in the arse, but they have to, NRSWA ( new roads and street works act) has to be followed. They are breaking the law if they don’t.

[Firebottle]

I'm with you on this one Gaz. Had a lane closed and temporary traffic lights just so the foliage on one side of the Kidderminster road could be cut back.

FFS 'elf and safety has gone mad, as they used to say around here 'just keep out of the hoss road'.

Another example was closing one lane of the two around a busy island, just so they could tidy the island up. A large island caters for a lot of traffic so halving the lanes is most annoying with big queues

[struth]

safety for the workmen to work without being hit by passing cars....if you ever work like this you will appreciate how dangerous it can be

[Pigmy Pony]

safety for the workmen to work without being hit by passing cars....if you ever work like this you will appreciate how dangerous it can be

Yes but a lot of times the stuff stays there when there is no one working there.

What winds me up also are the signs on motorways which have a picture of some kid with the caption "my daddy works here". Really? I can't see anyone here. He may have told you he works here when really he's gone to the pub with the rest of them.

[Gaz]

safety for the workmen to work without being hit by passing cars....if you ever work like this you will appreciate how dangerous it can be

Except they finished work at 3pm yesterday leaving the lane closure and traffic lights in place overnight

[struth]

Except they finished work at 3pm yesterday leaving the lane closure and traffic lights in place overnight

yup, but unless its part of the lane licence, you cant take it down and then put it back up again. Such is bureaucracy.

there are also laws on who can and cant put up and remove said roadworks... its a minefield these days and im glad im not involved.

[hifi_dave]

Happens a lot round here because of the obscene number of houses and retirement homes being built. Often, the work is completely on the pavement or verge, yet the barriers and lights are on the road.

I have discovered that there are companies who put up the barriers and lights ready for the works. So, we often have a week of misery before the work - a day or two of work and then a week or two waiting for the lights and barriers to be removed. In the good ol' days, the people doing the work would also do the barriers and lights, so the disruption would last just as long as the work.

[AJSki2fly]

Just you wait, it will be great when they start burying cable under the roads for self drive cars to detect and follow like Scalectrix, because anything else is too unreliable.