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Author Topic: Road Chaos!  (Read 2503 times)

raflaunches

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Road Chaos!
« on: June 14, 2018, 01:07:44 am »

Hi everyone


Finished work early for once in preparation to go on two days of stand down before deploying again and spent an extra 1hour 20minutes trying to get home!!! >>:-(
The reason: the A14/A1 completely shut for thirty miles in both directions at Huntingdon! That wasn’t the worst bit though!!! For those who know the area the bypass dual carriageway from the A14 North and South roundabout was open giving no indication that the entire next roundabout cannot be exited without going back the way you’ve just come! No diversions - even lorry drivers stopped and got out to ‘ask’ or shout at the workmen where they were supposed to go?!!
I know work has to be completed at night but this was taking the Mick!
Thought I’d warn a few people that it’s only going to get worse until it finishes in 2020. It just infuriates me that they didn’t give a much earlier warning instead of what I and many others were confronted with!
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tigertiger

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Re: Road Chaos! A cautionary tale!
« Reply #1 on: June 14, 2018, 02:26:04 am »

This kind of thing is always infuriating. It would have been on the Highways Agency website, which few people check, but it might be worth remembering for the future. Road sensors allow them to publish delays in real time and you can also view the cameras. This if for Motorways and major A roads (trunk routes).
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Martin (Admin)

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Re: Road Chaos! A cautionary tale!
« Reply #2 on: June 14, 2018, 05:26:58 am »


I've noticed that same attitude in recent years too, ( on British road traffic management anyway ), accident / RTA, road closures / over-runs, wide-loads etc, etc...  'Well we're gonna have to close the road anyway. It's going take as long as it takes, so just deal with it bitch!'

RTA near me last week, dual carriageway closed for recovery, (no injuries or deaths), no traffic management at all.... so ALL traffic forced through a housing estate for 6+ hours!  - 1 hour from A1 to my house... 1 MILE!  >>:-(
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Brian60

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Re: Road Chaos! A cautionary tale!
« Reply #3 on: June 14, 2018, 07:21:07 am »

Its not only the UK it happens here as well. Only a fortnight ago we were off to our major city for shopping. It involves using a bypass around the nearest town, this bypass is 10 kilometres long but nice and straight. Get on to the bypass and just half a kilometre before the end (roundabouts at both ends) the road was coned off and had to take a sliproad. This took us on very minor (in some places only enough for one car) road, all the way back to the other end. Only to have to use the road actually through the town that has the bypass!


A 45 minute diversion and we ended up at the roundabout where we would have normally exited! Just so they could lay some new tarmac. While we were in the car, it must have been a nightmare for truckers. This could all have been alleviated with a simple sign at the beginning of the bypass.

grendel

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Re: Road Chaos! A cautionary tale!
« Reply #4 on: June 14, 2018, 08:03:00 am »

thats nothing to the daily trials and tribulations of the M25, rarely a day goes by without some sort of delays at the dartford tunnel- 30 minutes one side or the other is quite normal.
Google maps is good with the traffic turned on - this information is gathered by everyone who has google maps on their phones as the app tracks their speed, so its easy to spot the hold ups and traffic building.
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roycv

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Re: Road Chaos! A cautionary tale!
« Reply #5 on: June 14, 2018, 08:24:05 am »

Hi, the expected 4 year A14 upgrade had the start of work delayed by the minister so that the finished job would coincide with the end of the Cameron administration. That administration did not last the expected full term.
 This also meant that the normal process of send in the archeologists then the route planners and then the moving of utilities (pipes etc) then go for quickly rebuilding and renewing the road was held up and I understand everybody was at the start line together waiting for the political decision to go.It is a bit of a mess!  The delays are costing us all a lot of money.
The A 14 road is the main trunk route from the port of Felixstowe to the M1, M6 and is a designated a 'Euroroute' and it was basically worn out with the enormous though efficient container traffic movements.  It is likely to continue with delays for quite a long while to come.Sorry to bring up the political side but I have hopefully sanitized it to account for the situation.regards Roy

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KitS

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Re: Road Chaos! A cautionary tale!
« Reply #6 on: June 14, 2018, 09:47:30 am »

The privatisation of some County Council 'Highways Departments' doesn't help either.

My local 'organisation' (the word organisation is used in the WIDEST possible terms....) in Gloucestershire has been farmed out to Ameys, who default to totally closing any road they are working on. At the same time the diversions that they may or may not organise are often half the width of the main road they've closed!

They do this '.....to ensure the safety of our work force......' I've asked more than one councillor who it is who's meant to ensure the safety of the tax paying population of the county, without having any meaningful answer of course.
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dreadnought72

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Re: Road Chaos! A cautionary tale!
« Reply #7 on: June 14, 2018, 01:38:18 pm »

Mmm.  >>:-( I returned from Aberdeen on Tuesday (tailgated all the way by this large blue thing) and got rudely flung off the A9 by the police, following an accident. The only suggestion by the police regarding an alternative route was to back-track beyond Perth and take the Edinburgh motorway. Totally out of my way. We parked up for an hour and then sneaky-back-roads it home. The trip of three hours eventually took seven.


I understand the need to clear the carriageway and conduct an investigation while the evidence is fresh, but there's surely no way that should take hours and hours.



Andy (and soon-to-be-renamed boat)
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Jerry C

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Re: Road Chaos! A cautionary tale!
« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2018, 04:49:11 pm »

I’ve begun to suspect that google maps is very clever. I’ve been trying to learn where every place is in Canberra but every time I go to the same place it seems to send me a different way every time. Sometimes it seems bizarre but always takes the same time. Could it be that maps knows where it’s sent everyone else. Is it making use of “go on red left turns”? On my phone I can only see a small area. If I expand the picture smaller roads disappear. I’ve searched everywhere for a paper map showing every road so I can visualise where every suburb is to no avail. Every trip is a magical mystery tour! I should mention that a traffic jam in Canberra is defined as having to wait for two red lights.
Jerry.

grendel

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Re: Road Chaos! A cautionary tale!
« Reply #9 on: June 14, 2018, 04:55:47 pm »

having watched the Canadian programs about breakdown and recovery services - the main import over there seems to be to get the traffic moving again, rather than blocking the roads, it does seem that over here they are more concerned with box ticking on the health and safety form (I have nothing against safety) than they are about getting the log jam of traffic on the move again.
I once spent 9 hours getting home as they had closed the dartford tunnel we stopped moving at about 6pm, there were cars with mums and babies- cars with kids, all trying to get home. we didnt move until 10.30pm when they sent us along the A13 to the blackwall tunnel - I eventually got there t 1am, and home at 2.30am, having left work at 5pm. it was absolute chaos, you couldnt pull off the A13 as every petrol station was crammed, every road chocca, at midnight I was a mile from the blackwall tunnel and unable to turn round when they announced the dartford tunnel open again.
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derekwarner

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Re: Road Chaos! A cautionary tale!
« Reply #10 on: June 14, 2018, 11:34:05 pm »

mmmmmmmmm in Adelaide for a month....go down Marion Road, turn left into Stuart Road......takes 30 minutes to progress 1 Km >>:-(

4 lanes into 1 and 2 sets of traffic lights within 100m..........

Of course the State Government cannot be blamed, as until recently they were in Opposition [& for the past 100 years]
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david48

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Re: Road Chaos! A cautionary tale!
« Reply #11 on: June 15, 2018, 01:33:58 am »


M6 being made into Smart Motorway ,finishing date 2022, 13.5 hrs from Penrith to Southampton. Need I say more , Smart !!!!
David

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BrianB6

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Re: Road Chaos! A cautionary tale!
« Reply #12 on: June 15, 2018, 03:50:46 am »

Not roads but rail
The Victorian government have started work removing level crossings on both rail lines that service the southeast of Melbourne at the same time.   Buses replacing trains increasing the journey times to the city by 30 - 45 minutes.   Then they wonder why the roads are jambed.  >>:-(
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LJ Crew

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Re: Road Chaos! A cautionary tale!
« Reply #13 on: June 15, 2018, 08:28:29 am »

"Protecting Our Workforce" Surely that is done anyway? There is very little evidence that there is one.
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Fred Ellis

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Re: Road Chaos! A cautionary tale!
« Reply #14 on: June 15, 2018, 08:42:38 am »

Hi


In Newhaven (Sussex U.K) we have a swing bridge then four sets of traffic lights all in about 1000 yds, and the lights are all pedestrian controlled. so at times I have taken 30min to cover a 1000yds


fred

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roycv

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Re: Road Chaos! A cautionary tale!
« Reply #15 on: June 15, 2018, 09:07:17 am »

Here in Watford we have a complex traffic light system at 'The Dome' roundabout.  There are always queues of traffic and there is an unattached pedestrian controlled crossing.
About 2 years ago the traffic lights were turned off for a s/w upgrade.  All the queues of traffic vanished and there were no hold ups.  Highways authority insisted against opposition in bringing the lights back into operation and we have our queues back.

At the other major roundabout there was traffic chaos and so traffic lights were to be installed, but prior to the traffic lights being installed the road had lanes painted on them.  All the chaos vanished!  The Traffic lights were sitting there waiting to be installed but they saw sense and took them away.
 It is a busy roundabout but as long as the lanes are not restricted not bad, except at rush hour in the evening, when it may well have been made worse with traffic lights.Regards Roy


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grendel

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Re: Road Chaos! A cautionary tale!
« Reply #16 on: June 15, 2018, 12:21:01 pm »

I remember a roundabout where entry and progress around the roundabout were all controlled by lights, the phasing was set so that traffic coming onto the roundabout had priority, this meant the roundabout was always grid locked, as more and more traffic got on the roundabout, but was blocked from exiting by the traffic coming on at the previous entrance, traffic then couldnt get on because of the traffic queuing to get off the next exit, and the whole lot was chaos. after several years chaos somebody decided to give traffic exiting the roundabout priority, and its been slick and smooth even at busy times ever since.
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McGherkin

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Re: Road Chaos!
« Reply #17 on: June 15, 2018, 01:50:17 pm »

Our council is a bit mental. There's one fairly arterial road which used to be two lanes each way. The roads feeding into and out of it are two lanes each way.

You guessed it, the council single-laned it. So to flow the same amount of traffic, it would have to flow twice as fast.... Yup, you guessed it, they dropped the speed limit too. And to add insult to injury, because they realised that everybody kept going at the old speed limit in an attempt to stop the damn thing from jamming up... they've put average speed cameras in too! No surprises on the result - You can forget going that way at rush hour.

There's another big road heading out of the city which they've just redeveloped. They've hired the sort of contractor who would retarmac your driveway to redesign and build a major route... Absolute chaos. The workers would change the layout of all the cones... but not the signs. So you'd be driving in a lane which was supposed to go one way, and you'd wind up going the other. Also they've somehow managed to make the road too narrow, so there's 1 normal sized bus lane then 2 other lanes which are so narrow that anything wider than a car won't actually fit in either lane. Oh, and about 500 sets of traffic lights too. Looks like the runway at Heathrow at night.

I'm convinced they're doing it deliberately, to force traffic jams so that they can impose a congestion charge and force people to take the bus instead. Utterly suicidal.
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