road works in the uk

cm1179 · 19 Jan 2010 at 08:47

worst in the world? i work in dudley, llive in worcs. my commute home usually takes 45 inutes, yesterday it took me 45 minutes to do less than 2 miles as they've decided to carry out roadworks along a stretch of road which happens to run past one of europes largest shopping centres. why didn't they do this when people were off work? do other countries operate like this?!

Duke · 19 Jan 2010 at 08:48

I think more work should be done overnight, which they did around here recently when resurfacing a few A roads. People will moan either way though, whether they do road works or the lack of doing it.

jamief · 19 Jan 2010 at 08:49

Because paying people to work overnight or on public holidays would cost double what it does to repair the road during standard working hours.

Dave M · 19 Jan 2010 at 08:50

jamief said:
Because paying people to work overnight or on public holidays would cost double what it does to repair the road during standard working hours.

Plant and material would cost the same and most industries don't pay double for night work anymore.

cm1179 · 19 Jan 2010 at 08:51

jamief said:
Because paying people to work overnight or on public holidays would cost double what it does to repair the road during standard working hours.

i understand that but its our money. i also remember severn trent doing some repair work in my town, causing no end of problems the useless outfit didn't do a satisfactory job and it all came up and got done again!

Duke · 19 Jan 2010 at 08:52

jamief said:
Because paying people to work overnight or on public holidays would cost double what it does to repair the road during standard working hours.

But could be done in a fraction of the time as they could close the whole stretch and get on with it, rather than spending time putting up loads of bollards, cones and lights and keep moving them during the day whilst they work.

'Wes · 19 Jan 2010 at 08:55

Motorway roadworks do my head in.

ripperOFflesh · 19 Jan 2010 at 11:17

40 years backlog for the potholes they will never catch up

wiltonson · 19 Jan 2010 at 11:27

sometimes it's due to the council restrictions on working hours as construction at night will will disturb the residents/public there. Even on the M25, many areas have such working hours limits. The contractors have been told sepecific time window which they can work in.

Sankari · 19 Jan 2010 at 11:29

cm1179 said:
road works in the uk

Apparently not.

deuse · 19 Jan 2010 at 11:32

cm1179 said:
worst in the world? i work in dudley, llive in worcs. my commute home usually takes 45 inutes, yesterday it took me 45 minutes to do less than 2 miles as they've decided to carry out roadworks along a stretch of road which happens to run past one of europes largest shopping centres. why didn't they do this when people were off work? do other countries operate like this?!

Do you go past the merry hill?
If so you are taking the long way home to Worcester.

People moan if the roads are crap then they moan when they repair them

Nick1881 · 19 Jan 2010 at 11:32

Up the road from me they dug a hole in the road so had only 1 side of the road open and traffic lights controlling it, for about 2 weeks in total, for at least 1 week there was no hole and no reason for the lights to be up after the work men had gone home, I didn't see anyone there at 8am or 5pm when I went passed, it drove me mad.

Dave M · 19 Jan 2010 at 11:46

mr_x_plosion said:
Up the road from me they dug a hole in the road so had only 1 side of the road open and traffic lights controlling it, for about 2 weeks in total, for at least 1 week there was no hole and no reason for the lights to be up after the work men had gone home, I didn't see anyone there at 8am or 5pm when I went passed, it drove me mad.

Same happened here on the way to stone - except it was for about 2 miles.

The company doing it went bust, so they left the lights and barriers up for 3 months while they found someone else to carry on.

The company leasing the lights and cones must have made a mint.

Aero · 19 Jan 2010 at 12:23

We have to plan our works for night time working. For things like materials there are additional costs to be associated such as opening a concrete plant for night works.

If you didn't have people making repairs and in improves you would soon moan about it. The fact of the matter is that the roads are not designed to cope with the traffic flows that exist on them (in general)

bandit · 19 Jan 2010 at 12:26

dudley MBC seem to find it difficult to compute the fact that if you do roadworks on a major piece of their infrastructure, traffic will have to go otherways so DONT do works there at the same TIME!!!!!!

I work in dudley too and the burmnt tree islands been a 'mare for ages

i have a few rat runs, but i dont want to have to use them all the bleedin' time :mad:

Sankari · 19 Jan 2010 at 12:38

It's Dudley. The roadwork teams need time to reload the wagons and feed the horses.

Cosimo · 19 Jan 2010 at 12:42

Evangelion said:
It's Dudley. The roadwork teams need time to reload the wagons and feed the horses.

I hear that you don't have roads in Australia.

cm1179 · 19 Jan 2010 at 12:51

deuse said:
Do you go past the merry hill?
If so you are taking the long way home to Worcester.

People moan if the roads are crap then they moan when they repair them

worcestershire, not worcester though i am tempted to take the motorway home tonight but that means burnt tree isalnd and (as another poster has said) that's a nightmare as well!

the roads are crap

Sankari · 19 Jan 2010 at 12:53

simulatorman said:
I hear that you don't have roads in Australia.

Hey, we have roads! And you should see how fast our ox carts can crank 'em out!

Souljacker · 19 Jan 2010 at 12:56

I had the same problem yesterday - a very busy roundabout was being patched up, which I am grateful for, but doing it at lunchtime when all the workers nip out for lunch is just silly.

I was sat in a stretch of road for 35 mins - a road which usually takes me a minute to travel.

Do it at night please!