i have just found out they are going to close the A303 for 3 months from mere to the junction of the A350, the diversion is a joke
from A 303 podimoor roundabout up A37 via shepton mallet,then frome and back down A36 warminster to A303 wyle now that is miles.
the otherway A350 to shaftsbury and then back out through gillingham now from what i can remember that is a not a very good road either way that is going to be long delays
do you think that the highways bods should be able to close a major road for that lenght of time?your thoughs please
I hated it when they started on the roundabouts on the A1 markham moor,Worksop,Grantham ETC but thinking back to waiting in all those queues on a Friday im glad the work has been done.
If they have to close the roads to impropve them its probably woreth it in the long run.
I live on the Gillingham → Wincanton road (30mph on-street parking) that they’re planning to divert all the westbound 303 traffic along for 14 weeks. It’s fair to say that there is a certain lack of enthusiasm for the project in our house!
It ■■■■■■ me off that to make life safer/easier/cheaper for the guys on the roadworks, they can spread complete misery through half a dozen small towns. You can bet your boots that parked-car damage, carriageway damage and the general horrors of 20K+ vehicles a day up the residential street your kids walk to school along will not be appearing on the performance stats of the road contractors. It’s just a way of making their expensive H&S/Enviro problem into someone else’s.
This is not like the A30 closure at Marsh a few years ago, where there were few LGVs on that bit of the road anyway, and the obvious LGV diversion via Taunton was hardly any longer anyway.
So just think, however much of a misery it will be to drivers from elsewhere, it’s going to be a darn-sight worse for some of the rest of us.
wilbur:
It ■■■■■■ me off that to make life safer/easier/cheaper for the guys on the roadworks, they can spread complete misery through half a dozen small towns.
Unfortunately, people can’t be trusted to go through roadworks in a safe manner. Hence the current trend of using quad bike ‘convoy vehicles’ to slow people down.
I used to work on the roads and the way people come through was normally ok but it only takes one idiot to cause a disaster - we had a lad on our gang clipped on the A548 into Abergele - ■■■■■■ in a BMW doing about 50mph on what is a pretty narrow road with my wagon blocking one lane. Luckily, the lad just had bruising and his wheelbarrow took the brunt (made a nice mess of the Beemer too…shame!).
I know it is scant consolation when you’ve got chaos on your front doorstep but you can’t blame companies for protecting their workforce. Also, perhaps if they didn’t divert the traffic the works would take about four times as long?
hammer:
wilbur:
I know it is scant consolation when you’ve got chaos on your front doorstep but you can’t blame companies for protecting their workforce. Also, perhaps if they didn’t divert the traffic the works would take about four times as long?
I’m not blaming them for protecting their workforce, I’m blaming the set of incentives which means that they protect their workforce at the expense of everyone else.
The same tossers who can’t be trusted to drive through 3 miles of roadworks are not going to be any more sensible on the 25 mile diversion. It’s just that the vast majority of the trouble they cause there will not appear on the monthly reports at the contractors who who are doing the work. If somebody gets hit on the site, that’s RIDDOR and HSE etc. If someone/something gets hit on my street, that’s just another RTC. It’s a way of taking costs and risks which should be on the contract and dumping them on other people.
The road from Wincanton to Gillingham and on towards Shaftesbury is passable in a truck. It is narrow in certain spots but not that bad. I used to work for Sensible Transport on the cars and their yard was out at Henstridge and this was the “approved route” to and from the A303.
Just a pointer, the alternative diversion on the A37 to Shepton/Frome/Warminser has a 14’ 9 bridge at Lydford.
I’m not sure what they’ll be doing but I guess they can’t dual it in 3 months!
wilbur:
I’m not blaming them for protecting their workforce, I’m blaming the set of incentives which means that they protect their workforce at the expense of everyone else.
Er, protecting the workforce at the expense of everyone else is a good thing surely? Bottom line, you have a house protecting you, the workforce have a line of plastic cones!
wilbur:
The same tossers who can’t be trusted to drive through 3 miles of roadworks are not going to be any more sensible on the 25 mile diversion…It’s a way of taking costs and risks which should be on the contract and dumping them on other people.
Unless your stood around IN THE ROAD outside your house, I am betting that you will be significantly safer than the workforce in the road. There is a lot less to hit on the diversion than 3miles of roadworks.
