M6 junction 13 to junction 15 smart motorway

[Big L]

Heartening, 4 weeks on from the ‘end of work’, to see VMS today warning of 2 days of delays J15 to J14 southbound for later in September.

What are they up to?

[brummie_rob]

Heartening, 4 weeks on from the ‘end of work’, to see VMS today warning of 2 days of delays J15 to J14 southbound for later in September.

What are they up to?

Deep fill resurfacing in lane one. They did this just past J14 a few months ago. It will be down to two lanes across this weekend. Not sure why there is a need to do this now, wonder if they discovered some weak areas? There was a mention of this sort of thing ongoing through until next year.

They've not even removed all the average cameras yet!

[KILLER KNIGHT]

Heartening, 4 weeks on from the ‘end of work’, to see VMS today warning of 2 days of delays J15 to J14 southbound for later in September.

What are they up to?

Deep fill resurfacing in lane one. They did this just past J14 a few months ago. It will be down to two lanes across this weekend. Not sure why there is a need to do this now, wonder if they discovered some weak areas? There was a mention of this sort of thing ongoing through until next year.

They've not even removed all the average cameras yet!

They’ve removed most of them. They should have removed all of them by the time they opened it fully.

[brummie_rob]

Heartening, 4 weeks on from the ‘end of work’, to see VMS today warning of 2 days of delays J15 to J14 southbound for later in September.

What are they up to?

Deep fill resurfacing in lane one. They did this just past J14 a few months ago. It will be down to two lanes across this weekend. Not sure why there is a need to do this now, wonder if they discovered some weak areas? There was a mention of this sort of thing ongoing through until next year.

They've not even removed all the average cameras yet!

They’ve removed most of them. They should have removed all of them by the time they opened it fully.

Yes most have gone now. There were some bizarre happenings with the VMS yesterday reporting fake congestion and speed limits being reduced at random intervals. It was happening on both sides later in the day and I decided to call Highways for the first time as it was frustrating going from 70-50-70-40 and so on especially with the cameras. There was a 'nationwide' fault although I pointed out the Birmingham section wasn't affected but the chap on the phone said it was affecting the new sections of smart motorway only. He was quite forthcoming with the information and friendly and said he'd had a few calls on the matter.

[Duple]

Deep fill resurfacing in lane one. They did this just past J14 a few months ago. It will be down to two lanes across this weekend. Not sure why there is a need to do this now, wonder if they discovered some weak areas? There was a mention of this sort of thing ongoing through until next year.

They've not even removed all the average cameras yet!

They’ve removed most of them. They should have removed all of them by the time they opened it fully.

Yes most have gone now. There were some bizarre happenings with the VMS yesterday reporting fake congestion and speed limits being reduced at random intervals. It was happening on both sides later in the day and I decided to call Highways for the first time as it was frustrating going from 70-50-70-40 and so on especially with the cameras. There was a 'nationwide' fault although I pointed out the Birmingham section wasn't affected but the chap on the phone said it was affecting the new sections of smart motorway only. He was quite forthcoming with the information and friendly and said he'd had a few calls on the matter.

It seems to be doing this between Jnc 16 - 18 as well - random NSLs everywhere and speed drops.

I wonder if the stranded vehicle detection system can be "fooled" if there's enough artic's in 'convoy' - especially the 15'5"+ double deck trailers as these (at car level) appear to be very similar height wise to the SVD beacons.

They look pretty close in this shot and this trailer appears to be 15'

[brummie_rob]

Could be the case, it's a heavily used section for HGVs and with the pace of the rollout they maybe need some adjustment or bedding in periods.

[KILLER KNIGHT]

Deep fill resurfacing in lane one. They did this just past J14 a few months ago. It will be down to two lanes across this weekend. Not sure why there is a need to do this now, wonder if they discovered some weak areas? There was a mention of this sort of thing ongoing through until next year.

They've not even removed all the average cameras yet!

They’ve removed most of them. They should have removed all of them by the time they opened it fully.

Yes most have gone now. There were some bizarre happenings with the VMS yesterday reporting fake congestion and speed limits being reduced at random intervals. It was happening on both sides later in the day and I decided to call Highways for the first time as it was frustrating going from 70-50-70-40 and so on especially with the cameras. There was a 'nationwide' fault although I pointed out the Birmingham section wasn't affected but the chap on the phone said it was affecting the new sections of smart motorway only. He was quite forthcoming with the information and friendly and said he'd had a few calls on the matter.

The Smart Motorways around Birmingham are DHSR. These ones are ALR. That’s what the person from Highways Agency was talking about when he said new and old.

[KILLER KNIGHT]

Yes most have gone now. There were some bizarre happenings with the VMS yesterday reporting fake congestion and speed limits being reduced at random intervals. It was happening on both sides later in the day and I decided to call Highways for the first time as it was frustrating going from 70-50-70-40 and so on especially with the cameras. There was a 'nationwide' fault although I pointed out the Birmingham section wasn't affected but the chap on the phone said it was affecting the new sections of smart motorway only. He was quite forthcoming with the information and friendly and said he'd had a few calls on the matter.

There’s STILL two there! One of them has 28 written on it and the other one doesn’t even have cameras on it!

[KILLER KNIGHT]

Yes most have gone now. There were some bizarre happenings with the VMS yesterday reporting fake congestion and speed limits being reduced at random intervals. It was happening on both sides later in the day and I decided to call Highways for the first time as it was frustrating going from 70-50-70-40 and so on especially with the cameras. There was a 'nationwide' fault although I pointed out the Birmingham section wasn't affected but the chap on the phone said it was affecting the new sections of smart motorway only. He was quite forthcoming with the information and friendly and said he'd had a few calls on the matter.

There’s STILL two there! One of them has 28 written on it and the other one doesn’t even have cameras on it!

Been down to B’ham the last few times and they’ve all gone. Finally.

[brummie_rob]

J14-J15 has suffered from some really significant queues this holiday period where the lane drop is and up Keele bank. Queues have been 30-40 mins in length.

The question is what cost has this come, I don't remember queues of this length before the smart motorway but there were phantom stop start queues usually instead.

We seem to have solved one problem and created another. Keele bank really needs a crawler lane at least in the short term to help but I doubt we will see this.

Luckily the queues seem to be a Friday and holiday time thing exclusively.

[KILLER KNIGHT]

The mini VMS were in operation two nights ago. They’re used for lane closures instead of physical signs. They’re really cool. The only issue was that two or three of them towards the end were lying. They said lane one was closed, but the other three were open. The gantries said otherwise. This confused a lorry and a car in front of us. Three lanes on the right were closed instead.

[brummie_rob]

The mini VMS were in operation two nights ago. They’re used for lane closures instead of physical signs. They’re really cool. The only issue was that two or three of them towards the end were lying. They said lane one was closed, but the other three were open. Thr gantries said otherwise. This confused a lorry and a car in front of us.

That must be a first, I've only ever seen them used once on the older bit from J13-J12 which is a shame as they are much brighter and more effective than the signs the workers have to put out.

[KILLER KNIGHT]

The mini VMS were in operation two nights ago. They’re used for lane closures instead of physical signs. They’re really cool. The only issue was that two or three of them towards the end were lying. They said lane one was closed, but the other three were open. Thr gantries said otherwise. This confused a lorry and a car in front of us.

That must be a first, I've only ever seen them used once on the older bit from J13-J12 which is a shame as they are much brighter and more effective than the signs the workers have to put out.

They don’t exist on DHSR schemes do they?

[brummie_rob]

The mini VMS were in operation two nights ago. They’re used for lane closures instead of physical signs. They’re really cool. The only issue was that two or three of them towards the end were lying. They said lane one was closed, but the other three were open. Thr gantries said otherwise. This confused a lorry and a car in front of us.

That must be a first, I've only ever seen them used once on the older bit from J13-J12 which is a shame as they are much brighter and more effective than the signs the workers have to put out.

They don’t exist on DHSR schemes do they?

No, 13-12 is the original all lanes running section finished in what 2014? I used to travel to work during the setting up of works and they'd never use the electronic displays.

[Chris5156]

That must be a first, I've only ever seen them used once on the older bit from J13-J12 which is a shame as they are much brighter and more effective than the signs the workers have to put out.

They don’t exist on DHSR schemes do they?

No, 13-12 is the original all lanes running section finished in what 2014? I used to travel to work during the setting up of works and they'd never use the electronic displays.

I've doone quite a bit of driving on the M1, M3 and M25 Smart Motorways, plus had journeys on most of the others. I've yet to see any of the roadworks VMS ("ROTTMS") in use, ever, despite seeing plenty of roadworks. They seem to have been a total waste of money.

[Big L]

They were used for months when the M5 had a lane closure northbound near Droitwich a year or two back.

[KILLER KNIGHT]

That must be a first, I've only ever seen them used once on the older bit from J13-J12 which is a shame as they are much brighter and more effective than the signs the workers have to put out.

They don’t exist on DHSR schemes do they?

No, 13-12 is the original all lanes running section finished in what 2014? I used to travel to work during the setting up of works and they'd never use the electronic displays.

2016 actually. Junction 5 to Junction 8 was in 2014.

[KILLER KNIGHT]

That must be a first, I've only ever seen them used once on the older bit from J13-J12 which is a shame as they are much brighter and more effective than the signs the workers have to put out.

They don’t exist on DHSR schemes do they?

No, 13-12 is the original all lanes running section finished in what 2014? I used to travel to work during the setting up of works and they'd never use the electronic displays.

It’s actually Junctions 13-10A. ALR isn’t present on 11A-10A which is a real shame as it’s prone to congestion.

[KILLER KNIGHT]

This final repair/maintenance work on the southbound at Jct 15 is being consistently delayed! The work on the southbound entry slip road is going ahead but the main carriageway work is being delayed by weeks due to bad weather conditions.