Road closures

[brogdale]

Anyone else sensing that full, often protracted, road closures (not LTN stuff) are becoming more common?

Maybe I've just been unlucky over the last few years, but full-blown closures seem to have dogged much of the little driving that I have to do.

Is this a function of under-investment by the utilities corps?

At the moment my main route down to care for the aged parents is blocked by SSE in Purley; they've just closed the Caterham valley road down to the 25 until September for water mains work.





Anyone else got a 'favourite' closure atm?

 

[hash tag]

Dude, that is nothing I tell you, nothing! Please bear in mind Hammersmith bridge is also closed at the moment, this is my local Wandsworth bridge just a shirt while ago. I was going to post elsewhere to highlight drivers stupidity ..mmmon my way to work this morning I saw 3 cars try and cross the bridge. They had to manoeuvre around the cones and drive out again. I imagine they were not the first!

 

[brogdale]

Dude, that is nothing I tell you, nothing! Please bear in mind Hammersmith bridge is also closed at the moment, this is my local Wandsworth bridge just a shirt while ago. I was going to post elsewhere to highlight drivers stupidity ..mmmon my way to work this morning I saw 3 cars try and cross the bridge. They had to manoeuvre around the cones and drive out again. I imagine they were not the first!
View attachment 384680

Summer hols is a favourite time, of course.

I feel your pain; another 'highlight' of the last few years has been the prolonged closure of the coast bound M2 junction off the A249 (Detling Hill from the M20). It went even more chaotic when there was emergency gas main closure of 2 of the 3 lanes of the only viable alternative to get over the N. Downs; Bluebell Hill ! Then it snowed.

 

[hash tag]

Summer hols is a favourite time, of course.

I feel your pain; another 'highlight' of the last few years has been the prolonged closure of the coast bound M2 junction off the A249 (Detling Hill from the M20). It went even more chaotic when there was emergency gas main closure of 2 of the 3 lanes of the only viable alternative to get over the N. Downs; Bluebell Hill ! Then it snowed.

Millions have been up in arms about it, on next door, immediate colleagues who live on the far side, more distant colleagues etc. and I have to say, the roads
have been emptier than normal; school hols effect I wonder.
Friday, I have to head down Putney Bridge way for new tyres. That might be a different story. But no pain, not yet any roads.

 

[Knotted]

Yes. As towns and cities expand there are more cars and it becomes harder and harder to do any work on roads without road closures. London is probably a bit of special case though.

Obviously school holidays are a great time to close roads outside or near schools.

Use one.network if you want to check road closure or other road works on your route.

 

[Leafster]

Anyone else sensing that full, often protracted, road closures (not LTN stuff) are becoming more common?

Maybe I've just been unlucky over the last few years, but full-blown closures seem to have dogged much of the little driving that I have to do.

Is this a function of under-investment by the utilities corps?

At the moment my main route down to care for the aged parents is blocked by SSE in Purley; they've just closed the Caterham valley road down to the 25 until September for water mains work.

View attachment 384672

View attachment 384674

Anyone else got a 'favourite' closure atm?

Wasn't that bit closed for a few days quite recently?

I have noticed far more long term road closures recently than I would have thought would be the norm but it could just be that there have been more nearby.

Looking at One Network, there do seem to be quite a lot in the greater local area!



ETA: I see Knotted just mentioned One Network

 

[brogdale]

Wasn't that bit closed for a few days quite recently?

I have noticed far more long term road closures recently than I would have thought would be the norm but it could just be that there have been more nearby.

Looking at One Network, there do seem to be quite a lot in the greater local area!

View attachment 384686

ETA: I see Knotted just mentioned One Network

Ever since the 2018 floods they seem to have been messing around with works in the Dale road area but, having looked down into the hole down by Tescos today, this is about big pipes. As I was peering down into the hole I overheard the suction man telling a manager type that he was having trouble with collapsing sides over by what used to be My Old China. Wouldn't be surprised if that old wreck of a place fell into the hole.

 

[Knotted]

Most road closures will be up on one.network three months before the work starts.

 

[T & P]

The problem is not so much the amount of road closures,, but that absurdly long amount of time they usually take to complete in this country compared with not just the likes of Japan, but about every other fucking country on earth.

 

[Leafster]

Ever since the 2018 floods they seem to have been messing around with works in the Dale road area but, having looked down into the hole down by Tescos today, this is about big pipes. As I was peering down into the hole I overheard the suction man telling a manager type that he was having trouble with collapsing sides over by what used to be My Old China. Wouldn't be surprised if that old wreck of a place fell into the hole.

Ah, the Purley Pond! I used to love My Old China. I still miss it. I seem to remember the last time the A22 closed was do to with the drains but I'm fairly sure I read that this time it's about putting in an additional water main.

During the heavy floods (I thought it was earlier than 2018) the section further down the A22 was heavily flooded either side of Whyteleafe. I was more or less cut off for a day or two as I lived up a side road off the main road at the time. The local scaffolding company built a make-shift pier for people to walk from the middle of Whyteleafe to the M&S garage. It was there for at least a couple of weeks.

 

[brogdale]

The problem is not so much the amount of road closures,, but that absurdly long amount of time they usually take to complete in this country compared with not just the likes of Japan, but about every other fucking country on earth.

When the electrical junction box in the pavement outside our house blew up, after the fire brigade handed the scene over to Network Power (or whatever they were/are called), it then took 5 separate sets of workers/sun-contractors to see the hole closed and finished. Each handover inevitably incurred days of delays and the whole thing went on for weeks. The externalities passed on to the public.

 

[brogdale]

Ah, the Purley Pond! I used to love My Old China. I still miss it. I seem to remember the last time the A22 closed was do to with the drains but I'm fairly sure I read that this time it's about putting in an additional water main.

During the heavy floods (I thought it was earlier than 2018) the section further down the A22 was heavily flooded either side of Whyteleafe. I was more or less cut off for a day or two as I lived up a side road off the main road at the time. The local scaffolding company built a make-shift pier for people to walk from the middle of Whyteleafe to the M&S garage. It was there for at least a couple of weeks.

No, you're right; I think that the great Caterham valley floods were 2014.

 

[Knotted]

I've seen an emergency road closure due to a subsidence caused by a water leak go on for a couple of weeks without the Water Company (Thames Water) turn up to fix the leak.

 

[Elpenor]

No, you're right; I think that the great Caterham valley floods were 2014.

Remember them well as had mates who live in Kenley and were cut off from Purley Tescos

 

[brogdale]

Remember them well as had mates who live in Kenley and were cut off from Purley Tescos

beer!

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Does seem to be shed-loads of them all over the place the last couple of months.

 

[Knotted]

It should also be said that health and safety is a bigger factor than it used to be. A lot of road closures nowadays might have been winged without them 10, 20+ years back but that comes with a cost in terms of injuries and fatalities.

 

[hash tag]

When the electrical junction box in the pavement outside our house blew up, after the fire brigade handed the scene over to Network Power (or whatever they were/are called), it then took 5 separate sets of workers/sun-contractors to see the hole closed and finished. Each handover inevitably incurred days of delays and the whole thing went on for weeks. The externalities passed on to the public.

Have you never seen I'm alright Jack?
It will need health n safety make an assessment, the contractors report to the local authority, the local authority reply, specialist contractors to dig the hole avoiding
other services as well as digging around the actual issue, specialists coming in to repair the problem, then specialists coming back to fill the hole in.

In Wandsworth in fairness, we were first warned several months ago, so there was lots of planning before then. On my trips to work, I have seen a gradual increase in plant and barriers etc.
being stored nearby in readiness and for a week or more beforehand, people have been slowly restricting access to the bridge in preparation.

 

[brogdale]

Have you never seen I'm alright Jack?
It will need health n safety make an assessment, the contractors report to the local authority, the local authority reply, specialist contractors to dig the hole avoiding
other services as well as digging around the actual issue, specialists coming in to repair the problem, then specialists coming back to fill the hole in.

In Wandsworth in fairness, we were first warned several months ago, so there was lots of planning before then. On my trips to work, I have seen a gradual increase in plant and barriers etc.
being stored nearby in readiness and for a week or more beforehand, people have been slowly restricting access to the bridge in preparation.

Yeah, but H&S is, of course, essentially pro-worker...what locks in the delays are the 'trees' of sub-contraction used by the privatised, asset manger owned utilities.

 

[hash tag]

Dude, that is nothing I tell you, nothing! Please bear in mind Hammersmith bridge is also closed at the moment, this is my local Wandsworth bridge just a shirt while ago. I was going to post elsewhere to highlight drivers stupidity ..mmmon my way to work this morning I saw 3 cars try and cross the bridge. They had to manoeuvre around the cones and drive out again. I imagine they were not the first!
View attachment 384680

In the very short time it took me to walk across the bridge on my way home from work today, I saw 3 cars try and drive on to it, turn round and drive back to the roundabout. The publicity has been circulating everywhere for months. The first car was stupid, the second followed and there was a discernable gap to the third!
Idiots.

 

[Dogsauce]

Definitely seeing more of this, wonder if it’s for worker protection? Rownham Hill in Bristol was recently closed for three weeks due to laying some sort of utility, on the main route from Bristol to Portishead. Cars had to go up over the Suspension bridge (whose new toll barriers are sluggish compared to the old ones causing a massive back up) or up Clarkham Coombe which was a complete traffic jam. I do wonder if it was a safety thing to do with fumes from vehicles ascending the steep hill, especially if there were temp lights causing stopping and starting.

 

[Elpenor]

I suppose school holidays are a good time to close roads anyway

 

[SpookyFrank]

Roadworks are due on our estate, starting from tomorrow. The signs they've put up pretty much just say 'no parking' for the week starting today with all the other information blanked out with yellow tape. From the permit it looks like they're going to completely close one long road, which would trap us in our little cul-de-sac and also most of the rest of the estate, a thousand or so houses, which is all one big loop off the road they're working on.

There's been no letter in the post or anything, can they just close the whole road completely with no residents' access without any proper notification? It'll be fucking carnage if they do. We're right on the edge of the city and there's nowhere else for an entire estate to move their cars to, even if they did know what was going on which they don't.

 

[T & P]

Roadworks are due on our estate, starting from tomorrow. The signs they've put up pretty much just say 'no parking' for the week starting today with all the other information blanked out with yellow tape. From the permit it looks like they're going to completely close one long road, which would trap us in our little cul-de-sac and also most of the rest of the estate, a thousand or so houses, which is all one big loop off the road they're working on.

There's been no letter in the post or anything, can they just close the whole road completely with no residents' access without any proper notification? It'll be fucking carnage if they do. We're right on the edge of the city and there's nowhere else for an entire estate to move their cars to, even if they did know what was going on which they don't.

Whereas I can’t provide any supporting evidence, I’m pretty certain all local authorities are obliged to give something like a week’s notice for non-emergency roadworks. So reasonable grounds to complain, and if you or any of your neighbours get a parking fine or tow removal fee, it’d be definitely worth appealing.

It’s completely out of order. On my street they recently gave five days’ notice. One poor fucker who parks their bike on the solo motorcycle bay I use got four tickets in as many days.