Fake Road Closures

[Pip in a Poke]

Getting really fed up with this at the moment.

It makes me bloody furious when I have to make a 3 mile detour due to a road closure when in fact I could have just got out of my car, moved the "Road Closed" sign out of the way and proceeded on my merry way either because there was sweet tap all going on or the the actual works were so insignificant that a pair of Sherman tanks could have fit through two abreast

It also makes me bloody furious when they close a whole carriageway of the ring road and place the cones such that there is no room for me to filter thus forcing me into the closed lane putting me at risk of disappearing down a crater.

Why are there so many bloody futile roadworks everywhere all of the time, why do they cause maximum inconvenience, why do they take so long and why is the quality of the resulting job always so shoddy?

Oh, and why don't I experience this misery on the continent?

[ladymuck]

Move to the continent. Problem solved.

[Wilmslow]

Getting really fed up with this at the moment.

It makes me bloody furious when I have to make a 3 mile detour due to a road closure when in fact I could have just got out of my car, moved the "Road Closed" sign out of the way and proceeded on my merry way either because there was sweet tap all going on or the the actual works were so insignificant that a pair of Sherman tanks could have fit through two abreast

It also makes me bloody furious when they close a whole carriageway of the ring road and place the cones such that there is no room for me to filter thus forcing me into the closed lane putting me at risk of disappearing down a crater.

Why are there so many bloody futile roadworks everywhere all of the time, why do they cause maximum inconvenience, why do they take so long and why is the quality of the resulting job always so shoddy?

Oh, and why don't I experience this misery on the continent?

So very true - the Autopista and Autoroute through France and Spain has plenty of roadworks, but short and well managed. I also saw a mother of a smash on a Barcelona autopista - the services arrived, injured in ambulances, and they cleared the cars and had the road re-opened in under an hour.

[BR14]

'cos they don't have sherman tanks on the continent anymore?

[WTFH]

Road repairs are outsourced to the lowest bidder in this country and they do not have to guarantee their workmanship.
In most of Europe the roads are either maintained by the government, or the toll roads are maintained by the toll owners, who are targeted on performance and delays. They are financially penalised if a bad job is done.

[woohoo]

Move to the continent. Problem solved.

Having just driven through Spain and France I can tell you that there are tons of road works, with exactly the same issues we have.

My favorite in France is roads advertised as closed, only for you to find out that one lane is open. We found this out by waiting for diversion signs when our sat nav wanted to direct us 150km to avoid the closed road - which had one lane open.

Also, in France the toll roads can be nuts, we did a u-turn, and paid 20 euros coming off motorway and then going back we had to pay 20 euros up front. So 40 euros for going the wrong way.

[Big Blue Plymouth]

One thing I've never come across abroad is "surface dressing".

I loathe that with a passion.

Nothing worse than riding a motorcycle on a road that's been freshly surface dressed. Especially cornering when your front wheel hits a big bank of gravel that's been thrown up by all the car wheels.

Work of the devil....

[woohoo]

One thing I've never come across abroad is "surface dressing".

I loathe that with a passion.

Nothing worse than riding a motorcycle on a road that's been freshly surface dressed. Especially cornering when your front wheel hits a big bank of gravel that's been thrown up by all the car wheels.

Work of the devil....

I agree with you on that. This happens on our lanes and you can drive as slow as you want but you hear the chips flying up and hitting the car. Also, you can't make the white van driver coming the opposite way slow down, so you get chips on you.

Saying that, this year they put the chips down and it seemed much better, solid. So I wonder if they have been doing a crappy job of it for the past few years.

[WTFH]

My favorite in France is roads advertised as closed, only for you to find out that one lane is open. We found this out by waiting for diversion signs when our sat nav wanted to direct us 150km to avoid the closed road - which had one lane open.

Your sat nav wanted to take you on a detour and you are blaming the French road network, not your sat nav? Um...

Also, in France the toll roads can be nuts, we did a u-turn, and paid 20 euros coming off motorway and then going back we had to pay 20 euros up front. So 40 euros for going the wrong way.

Again, why is the fault of the road network that you took a wrong turn - were you following your sat nav? :

Oh yes, but its all the fault of the EU...

[BoredBloke]

Where I live the motorways are all being 'upgraded' to 'smart' motorways - which means in the future we'll all have the benefit of the traffic being slowed to 50 if there happens to be more than 5 cars on the motorway at any time.

We took our son to Keele to go back to uni. A journey of 61 miles. Of the 61 miles I'd say about 10 to 15 of them were running as normal motorways - not subjected to average speed cameras etc.