The Joshua Tree

Don't get me started on smart motorways, that's going to be a complete joke, that's another debate entirely.

I spend a lot of time on the motorways with my job, the state of our motorways have been a joke for a long while, it's standing gridlock most days especially on the M6, the M5, the M62 and parts of the M1.

These roadworks have been going on for years, why is it that in a country like Japan they would have had the whole lot finished in a matter of weeks yet over here their are parts where the so called construction work has been going on for around 5 years or longer especially on the M62.

From overnight total closures of sections of the motorways to standing gridlock most days, you can be sat in 20 mile of standing traffic on a regular basis.

So why is it taking so long, is it being dragged out so the fat cats can cream a load of money out of the job by dragging it on and on ? Or is it the shear incompetence of the people in the so called top jobs in this country for it taking so long ? Or a combination of the both ?

Peedee

iTrader: (4)

Completely agree. Prime example.....the M3. Utterly ridiculous. There have been major works on that road for years and years, wtf are they doing? Different story in the US and Canada (from what I’ve seen anyway).

The Joshua Tree

I don't go down as far as the M3, so that's another motorway that can be added to the list where so called construction work has been taking place for years yet nothing seems to get done at any kind of pace other than it causing gridlock and a huge inconvenience to the general public.

Paben

iTrader: (5)

It's a good question. The M4/M5 interchange is an example that went on for years - and it has made not a jot of difference to traffic flow.
Probably the most frustrating sight is miles of cones, a 50 limit and not sign of any work going on anywhere. It must cost the country £billions in lost time in traffic jams.

legb4rsk

They do it correctly in the USA.I was on holiday in Florida & the place we where staying was a few miles from the theme parks.On arrival I noticed a huge amount of road machinery parked at the side of the road on the main route to the theme parks.Being British I assumed we would be in for 2 weeks of misery, queuing everyday to get to the parks.

Wrong!They had about 10 of those tracked tarmac machines,road rollers & a fleet of about 50 huge trucks & other equipment.They only worked at night so no delays during the day
and after a couple of days they where miles down the road & I never saw them again.

Brilliant.

silver-sub

M6 is a joke.
Seriously can't remember how many years I've spent on the dam thing.

The Trooper 1815

iTrader: (31)

UK productivity is ****.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Having just travelled 1500 miles through Spain, France and the South west of England and drive regularly on the continent I notice a few things.

Spain and France only cone off the areas that actually being worked on. With the toll roads it's a continuous tarmac replacement operation, so whilst a whole road may be due resurfacing, only a 5 km stretch is taken out of action at any one point. It's also methodical; They redo the whole lot, not a little bit here or there (unless damaged). The process is much like a production line. Where in the UK they cone off the entire section due for work for the whole duration (installing speed cams along the way), even if they are only going to be working on a 500m stretch on that day. The UK also works in what appears to be a shotgun pattern; They'll do a bit here, little bit there, leave it month, come back do more here, more there. It seems so counter productive and inefficient.

There is an exception and that is the A63 south of Bordeaux which was formerly the N10 and the high speed railway across the A10 in Poitiers. These projects are huge akin to building a new M1 or HS2 as such they seem to be taking an eternity. Also Rouen took yonks to replace their bridge which was damaged when a fuel tanker caught fire, although I believe the latter was due to legal arguments about who was going to pay for it. So it's not all roses on the the continent, but when they do work, they just seem to get it done.

Our quality of road is poor too, we don't maintain them, so they probably need more work to resurface...this is probably why the M5 flyover at West Brom is so badly fecked; On the continent they regularly reseal hairline cracks in tarmac using semi-automated equipment, this stops water getting under and breaking up the surface. We never bother, we also forget to seal the seams between tarmac joins and around ironworks, so the surface around the fails only after a few winters.


We are also massively over populated...on Sunday I drove through France and the U.K. France was calm empty road bliss. UK was jammed up mess as soon as I reached the M25. The M40 back in the day would be empty, but last Sunday it was as busy as a week day, millions of motorists in both directions, more heading south presumably returning back to the London suburbs after their jolly weekend up North.

We need more motorways. If you look at the original plans back in the 40's we were supposed to have more than what we got, and nothing has been done since their completion, meanwhile France and Spain built more and expanded their road networks while we sat there, cancelled bypasses and bodged about with hard shoulders.

And the British lane hog, 4 lane motorways with the lane 1 and 2 empty, lane 3 filled with old people and young women sat 2inches from the steering wheel and blokes with the satnav directly in front of them. Lane 4 filled with angry people trying to get past the idiots in lane 3. Last Sunday it crawled down to 50mph, I ended up undertaking them all in lane 1 which was empty bar the odd HGV who were undertaking too!

BMWhere?

If you think its bad in the UK, you should see it in Germany. Construction workers only work 8:00 till 15:00, rarely work Saturdays and never work Sundays or Bank Holidays. I always complain here that they are so slow compared to the UK

I guess part of the problem in the UK is there are only a limited number of contractors who win all the projects. Each contractor has a limited number of employees who will be distributed among the currently running projects based on project priority or current phase of the project.

The other big problem in the UK is that the rail network and public transport in general in a load of crap. Busses and trains are dirty, unreliable, slow and expensive, so there is little incentive to use them over driving yourself. Other countries with greater population densities than the UK have less problems with congestion because more people use public transport.

Steve001

iTrader: (7)

The Australians have this down to a fine art

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Been saying this for years.
I used to camp in France at Clermont L'Herault, north east of Beziers.

At the time, we were turning the A1 from Peterborough, some 12 miles, from 2x 2 lanes into 2x 4 lanes, all on the flat. It took FOUR YEARS!

During this time, the French pushed the A75 more than 60 miles, through mountainous terrain, up to 1132m and with numerous bridges, tunnels and viaducts.

Same with railways. THEY built their LGV Nord from Paris to Lille, the Chunnel and Brussels, well over 200 miles of it, in about half the time it took us to build the CTL in Kent, even allowing for delays by NIMBYS.

WHY we have miles and miles of motorway coned off while they work on a 2-mile stretch is beyond me.

And the 40/50mph speed limits, ALWAYS with cameras? Just a money making exercise.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.tel...ngestion1/amp/

I thought the limits were to protect the elusive workforce. Bring it on, over six years it's costing the economy more than the proposed top figure Brexit bill.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

The original proposed motorway network for England (circa 1930's) :



What we got instead (note the missing linking motorways between the M1, 5, 6, 40 and 42):





This website is quite interesting, especially the unbuilt and unfinished sections, along with some dry humour to bring along some amusement....http://pathetic.org.uk

Rusti

iTrader: (4)

Interesting site, thanks for sharing.

The whole road repair thing gets my blood boiling, terrible workmanship I would be ashamed to put my name to some of the potholes that have been 'repaired' in the South.

1. Why do they always wait until winter to start when the holes are full of water?

2. Why are the holes not fully cut out to remove all the cracked edges, leaving a nice solid cut?

3. Why are seams never sealed with tar anymore, so water just seeps back in again, freezes and cracks it all up again?

Lastly on the the A3m why resurface the road then put in other works meaning you have cut up 3 month old surface and then patch it !!!!!!

AudiMan

M3 - what a joke - I even thought of starting a facebook page for people to post pictures of anyone actually working !!!
Takes so long so they can milk the overtime - useless f*****s
Oh and the night closures - yeh lets shut the M3 southbound and the A3 as well - just to see how hard it is for people to drive between London and the south without going via Cornwall or Kent

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Agreed.

On the continent it's quite common to see these types of repaired roads:



Even on unmarked rural roads. And it does work at extending the life of the road surface.

Meanwhile in the UK, councils wanting to extend the life of of minor and residential roads insist on"micro asphalt", which is basically glueing fine chippings on top of the existing surface. Its useless, must of it comes straight off after the first hard frost. Total waste of money

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Just driven 800km back up france. quite noticeable that "crawler lanes" have been built into their motorways where long hills occur, and that on others, lorries are forbidden to overetake.

We do neither.
In fact, where I live, the M180 REDUCES to 2 lanes each way from 3 as it bypasses Scunthorpe....just where two long hills up to the wolds occur. Either side, and it's almost billiard table flat And, of course, we then end up travelling MILES at 60 mph while one idiot trucker overtakes another going 1mph less
Cost was cited as the reason.....

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Doesn't parts of France ban HGVs during weekends and holidays?

Read it somewhere but not sure if it's current legislation.

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

HGVs are banned in Germany after 10pm on Saturday and all day Sunday and bank holidays unless they are carrying perishable goods or have special permission to be on the road.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Ditto in France, the only exceptions are livestock and refrigerated goods. Years ago, the Gendarmes would escort lorries to the nearest Aire de repos, or Aire de service and fine them. These days, less Gendarmes and more speed cameras........

Of course, the Eastern Europeans largely ignore the legislation now anyway...