The study of British and Irish roads - their construction, numbering, history, mapping, past and future official roads proposals and general roads musings.
There is a separate forum for Street Furniture (traffic lights, street lights, road signs etc).
Registered users get access to other forums including discussions about other forms of transport, driving, fantasy roads and wishlists, and roads quizzes.
Duple wrote:I guess this is the best place to post this.
I assume things are going a bit more to plan than expected?
The 'curved gantries' (sorry don't know the technical term!) That hold the MS4s up are starting to appear between 18 and 19.
Is this a sign ( ) it will be finished sooner than next March?
Any sensible contractor is going to take all the time he is allowed, so he doesn't have to come back later on.
I noticed the (perceived?) increase in work going on on this stretch yesterday, I also noticed great big horrible potholes in the middle lanes that haven't been resurfaced as yet!
Regarding the work contractors taking the allocated time, I can example this by the new A30 D2 on Bodmin Moor Cornwall that has been open for nearly a year, but on the last three occasions, at all times of the day and season, I have been held up with one lane each way closed for the remnants of groundworks being completed, including yesterday (Friday) with all the tourist traffic travelling east stuck in two miles of queues before it! Oh, and the overhead sign just before the queue said 75 minutes via A38 and 70 minutes via the A30 to the M5, not taking into account the 30 mins I was stuck!
What I'm trying to say is that there is no point opening a new stretch of D2 early if it needs permanent roadworks therefore making it a S2 with 40/50mph restrictions for a year.
Duple wrote:I guess this is the best place to post this.
I assume things are going a bit more to plan than expected?
The 'curved gantries' (sorry don't know the technical term!) That hold the MS4s up are starting to appear between 18 and 19.
Is this a sign ( ) it will be finished sooner than next March?
Any sensible contractor is going to take all the time he is allowed, so he doesn't have to come back later on.
I noticed the (perceived?) increase in work going on on this stretch yesterday, I also noticed great big horrible potholes in the middle lanes that haven't been resurfaced as yet!
Regarding the work contractors taking the allocated time, I can example this by the new A30 D2 on Bodmin Moor Cornwall that has been open for nearly a year, but on the last three occasions, at all times of the day and season, I have been held up with one lane each way closed for the remnants of groundworks being completed, including yesterday (Friday) with all the tourist traffic travelling east stuck in two miles of queues before it! Oh, and the overhead sign just before the queue said 75 minutes via A38 and 70 minutes via the A30 to the M5, not taking into account the 30 mins I was stuck!
What I'm trying to say is that there is no point opening a new stretch of D2 early if it needs permanent roadworks therefore making it a S2 with 40/50mph restrictions for a year.
Spot on !
Of course there will always be pressure on the contractor to finish as soon as possible. At least with the new A556 M6-M56 link up here in the North West, we haven't had closures of the link itself. However the ancillary works around the roads nearby, and the old A556 seem to have taken forever ! All is complete now though, but the poor old contractor is still at work landscaping the field where a work compound was located.
There has been a lot of local talk that the A500 is going to get 'Smarted' soon(ish) and a note in this legislation hints towards it.
No, the other roads it talks about are the slip roads, it doesn't talk about the A500. Currently non-special A roads such as the A500 can't be smartified anyway, as the legislation around variable speed limits applies only to motorways - so new I believe that new primary legislation is needed and not just a SI.
There's was talk in summer 2017 of turning the A500 into a smart road. I assume the idea is still in the air even if it's currently not legal to do so.
I've found the post I made back in August but the newspaper article I linked to is now dead so I can't give any details.
"If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed." - Sylvia Plath
There has been a lot of local talk that the A500 is going to get 'Smarted' soon(ish) and a note in this legislation hints towards it.
No, the other roads it talks about are the slip roads, it doesn't talk about the A500. Currently non-special A roads such as the A500 can't be smartified anyway, as the legislation around variable speed limits applies only to motorways - so new I believe that new primary legislation is needed and not just a SI.
Not true; consider the Welsh A470...
Though roads may not put a smile on everyone's face, there is one road that always will: the road to home.
So the time delay after the speed limit has gone down or a VSL has come on before the cameras change is 10 secs.
Also, they should use "AMI" and "MS4" instead of "speed limit sign"
Though roads may not put a smile on everyone's face, there is one road that always will: the road to home.
There has been a lot of local talk that the A500 is going to get 'Smarted' soon(ish) and a note in this legislation hints towards it.
No, the other roads it talks about are the slip roads, it doesn't talk about the A500. Currently non-special A roads such as the A500 can't be smartified anyway, as the legislation around variable speed limits applies only to motorways - so new I believe that new primary legislation is needed and not just a SI.
Not true; consider the Welsh A470...
Which section, and have you a reference to the accompanying statutory instrument?
So the time delay after the speed limit has gone down or a VSL has come on before the cameras change is 10 secs.
Also, they should use "AMI" and "MS4" instead of "speed limit sign"
You'd want to make it as generic as possible surely to avoid having to re-write the legislation with changing technology, otherwise, if there is no MS4 then you could have your ticket voided.
No, the other roads it talks about are the slip roads, it doesn't talk about the A500. Currently non-special A roads such as the A500 can't be smartified anyway, as the legislation around variable speed limits applies only to motorways - so new I believe that new primary legislation is needed and not just a SI.
Not true; consider the Welsh A470...
Which section, and have you a reference to the accompanying statutory instrument?
Not quite, the A470 for the first few junctions north of the M4 has had VSL gantries (always showing 50 whenever I use it) on the southbound carriageway for nearly a decade.
Whether or not these are actually variable speed limits is another question entirely, but the system is there.
The air quality speed limit (hence "danger to public") is a different kettle of fish entirely.
Bryn Terminally cynical, unimpressed, and nearly Middle Age already. She said life was like a motorway; dull, grey, and long.
I passed through northbound this morning and noticed, just before the portable variable message signs at the start of the works, a big yellow sign saying something like "Travel news 200 yards ahead".
I guess they it have been there a while, but it just seemed odd.
Make poetry history.
Did you know there's more to SABRE than just the Forums?
Help with maps using the new online calibrator.
Add your roads knowledge to the SABRE Wiki.
I found that odd too... especially as it's easier to see the VMS as you approach than it is to see the yellow information sign. Still it's a valiant effort.
Any thoughts if this is on/ahead/behind schedule for March completion? Would be nice to be back to only 20 miles of works on the M6 between Manchester and Wolverhampton instead of 40
MS4s are sprouting on the N/B section J18-J19, and some of the IR lighting for the CCTV is powered up on the same stretch, so looking good there. Still entombing bridge supports and digging out ERAs elsewhere.
(Think it's slightly depressing that they need lighting for the cameras on these smart motorways, but lighting motorways isn't very green these days, do they do it with IR instead).
I believe it is still on schedule, they announced it will open in phases with the first phase from J18-J19 opening in late Winter (this is the most advanced section of works from when I've driven through).
The sooner the better, some stats revealed by the local paper show that there has been over 1100 accidents since TM was installed and 6700 breakdowns in 2 1/2 years. I'm sure TM was in place before that though!
brummie_rob wrote: ↑Tue Nov 06, 2018 07:04
The sooner the better, some stats revealed by the local paper show that there has been over 1100 accidents since TM was installed and 6700 breakdowns in 2 1/2 years. I'm sure TM was in place before that though!
Those figures are truly appalling. There was a week only recently where the M6 was closed every day somewhere between Junctions 16 and 19 as a result of an accident.
I travelled through the other night, and J19 - J18 (southbound at least) was now mostly marked as 4 lanes with L1 coned off. It wouldn't surprise me to see this section to be in operation before Christmas.
The rest looked like it still had a way to go though.
They need to get it open ASAP so the safety benefits can kick in and reduce the appalling accident rate. My concern is testing the equipment tends to take a surprisingly long time and it may not be as ready as it looks.
) it will be finished sooner than next March?
