As I write, it is Friday 4 September. There are delays on the A60 at Ruddington – a combination of gas mains work near the petrol station and the installation of “pedestrian refuges”. Worryingly, there are also yellow signs warning that “work commences here 7 September 2015 for 3 weeks. Delays expected”. These signs are in place along the whole of the A60 from the Nottingham Knight roundabout all the way up to the Business Park south of Ruddington.
The existing work has been underway for at least three weeks already, with temporary lights up for most of the day (while they install the central refuges), and all day the last couple of days due to the gas main work. Both sets of work have been planned and carried out by incompetents, and should have been completed much sooner.
Edit: no signs of any works (other than the stuff started 3 weeks ago, which is not being touched and is still unfinished as of 9th September.
There are delays at the Crown Island due to the “ring road improvements” the Council got an EU grant for two years ago, and is desperate to spend before the EU asks for it back. It is not possible to predict precisely where the delays are on any given day, since traffic is sometimes at a standstill back to Nuthall Road heading south, and at other times (like yesterday) standing still as far back as the QMC heading north.
Edit: Tuesday 8th it was down to one lane northbound. Wednesday 9th it is one lane southbound, but with no advance warning until you turn on to the roundabout and hit a wall of cones.
There are delays along Queens Drive due to one lane being closed. Although this is due to the replacement street lighting – and has been going on intermittently for several weeks – it is connected with the tram. If nothing else, the work could easily have been done concurrent with the tram work while the road was restricted. Instead, I suspect they deliberately did it this way so they could officially announce that the tram was “finished” two weeks ago (albeit almost a year late), when they knew full well that it wasn’t.
Signs on Bilborough Road, and on roads in Wollaton and Lenton proclaim that due to the Tour of Britain cycle race those roads will be closed on Friday 11 September between (approximately) 2pm and 4pm. You will note the day – Friday – and the time – rush hour, which starts early on Fridays. You will also note the proximity of these areas to Crown Island, mentioned above.
You couldn’t make this up. But they’re not finished yet.
Signs proclaim that the roads around Silverdale Island will be closed for two weeks from 7 September. You will note the proximity of Silverdale Island to both the Crown Island and Ruddington.
You will also note the dates – 7 September – which means that everything, including that idiot cycle event, is going to be happening next Friday.
Edit: The incompetence gets worse by the day. They did NOTHING on 7th or during the day on the 8th, meaning pointless alternative routes were taken by myself when trying to access Silverdale. Then, it was chaos Tuesday night. Wednesday morning it is all gone again, but watch out for Wednesday night.
Also, it appears the work extends on to the A52, which was a single lane northbound Tuesday night (8th), as was part of the A60 from Ruddington.
Colwick Loop Road still has those road works – which started in January, are a month overdue, and which show few signs of concluding soon – due to the building of a Sainsbury’s store on one of the industrial estates.
The junction between Carlton Hill, Cavendish Road, and Station Road in Carlton has delays due to the “upgrading” of the junction. I can’t remember off the top of my head, but I think the sign says “3 weeks”. I didn’t see any advance warning of this, either.
You may remember that this junction is the temporal focal point of my derision towards National Grid, since it was here several years ago that gas main replacement commenced (blocking roads for months at a time) and has spread out like a cancer across the city since.
Driving through Ruddington this morning I saw two people with “NCC” (that’s the County Council) on the backs of their fluorescent jackets with a big tape measure and a can of yellow spray paint marking up the junction of Clifton Road and Wilford Road.
So brace yourself for weeks of misery there in the near future as they “improve” the road. The actual work on those pedestrian refuges I mentioned right at the start commenced less than a fortnight after some people with spray paint and a measuring wheel had been seen there.
Incidentally, the two people I saw this morning betrayed nothing to suggest they were qualified surveyors (no theodolite, just a big tape measure). They looked like they could be emptying bins later today after they’d finished this job.
These are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. There are lots of others, but it just goes to reinforce my assessment of the City and County Councils.