I can only sympathise, last time i did nights was about 5 years ago and this night closure fetish hadn’t reached the levels of lunacy it has now, and fortunately having a tanker on the back at least low bridges weren’t causing me the problems that pallet trunkers and similar must be having.
However starting early morn its still a case of hoping the route you’ve chosen hasn’t got overrunning or sudden works that you didn’t expect.
Mustardmitt though, the Garmin satnav with live digi-traffic has nearly always found any problems en route by the time i leave the yard which makes choosing a route a bit less of a gamble.
Haven’t got an answer for you, by the time they’ve finished the cheap bodge fix that smart motorways really are (won’t they be fun in the dark when you come up on an unlit failed electrics stranded vehicle on what should be the hard shoulder ) the population will have grown by another 5 million and those extra lanes will be rammed solid too.
Whole set up is a pile of ■■■■■ the website is useless trying to find out about closures is a task in itself, looking to see if the M25 is closed at J28 tonight should be a case of log in put in M25 closures and up it should pop, but no tells me there is congestion at J28. It is not until you go into more details and then look at the symbols on the map do you see that it is closed. Surely it would just be easier to put J28 to J27 closed rather than telling you there is congestion at J28 with a 10 minute delay but no reason for the delay.
It’s dire. You scratch your head and wonder which roads will actually be open tonight. It’s cause for celebration if you don’t run into closures on at least one of the roads.
Being practical when does essential work get done,its either at night or weekends either way Highways can`t win trunkers having a whinge because of the night work diversions and others having a whinge because it affects their weekend travel arrangements whilst out with their Families.
Not always possible to avoid closures,but there are usually advanced notification signs diplayed well in advance prior to work commencing,if they are ignored then whose fault is that.
The M1 between J29 and J35 has been blighted with full closures and lane closures for months and months now, even though the widening works were completed a year ago. Every night 4 lanes down to one with miles and miles of traffic behind.
Just smacks of sheer incompetence. As previously said, someone should be accountable for this farce. The haulage industry at night is a vital cog in the day to day economy and it is slowly being strangled to death.
I said it before way back in 2014 the Highways Agency have become a standing joke amongst the overnight trunking companies.
How on earth you are supposed to run an efficient overnight time sensitive delivery business using the motorway network is beyond me these last eight years overnight closures on our major roads and motorways has got totally out of hand.
The Highways Agency should be held accountable to some one but it seems that they are a law totally unto themselves.
The closures used to come on at 10pm then they started to come on at 9.30pm and the last couple of years has gradually been creeping forward.
Now they are starting at 8pm causing huge tailbacks of three lanes of solid traffic which last until the early hours of the morning, sometimes lasting all night long and for bloody what? Grass cutting all night on the M6!!!
peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news … -1-8020656
This was last month when they shut the slip road onto the A1 south at J17 then had temp lights on the diversion, they have now, postponed the roadworks for the time being.
I do wonder how much damage is done to double decker trailers when they are sent down inappropriate roads
Recently the M4 was shut and the traffic was sent from Hungerford to Swindon along the B4192 through Chilton Foliat not a road where i would go. They’ve changed it now to the A4 to Marlborough
What’s the solution though? Can’t close motorways on week days or weekends as even more traffic would be affected. Doesn’t seem to be a solution where everyone wins.
IronEddie:
What’s the solution though? Can’t close motorways on week days or weekends as even more traffic would be affected. Doesn’t seem to be a solution where everyone wins.
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I can see what you are saying but the M25 j28-27 is a 4 lane motorway so you think it would be possible to have 1 lane open instead of running everything into london on the A12 onto A406 then M11.
IronEddie:
What’s the solution though? Can’t close motorways on week days or weekends as even more traffic would be affected. Doesn’t seem to be a solution where everyone wins.
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I can see what you are saying but the M25 j28-27 is a 4 lane motorway so you think it would be possible to have 1 lane open instead of running everything into london on the A12 onto A406 then M11.
Bleeding health n safety at work I guess. You’re right some compromise that sees a partial opening would be best for everyone.
IronEddie:
What’s the solution though? Can’t close motorways on week days or weekends as even more traffic would be affected. Doesn’t seem to be a solution where everyone wins.
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Road closures are necessary, I get that. But is it too much to ask that:
Major roads aren’t closed at ridiculously early times (motorways closing at 8pm)
Roadworks don’t overrun by years
If a major road is closed, the alternative major route isn’t also closed
The diversion route doesn’t also have roadworks/closure
Diversions appropriate for HGVs
Correct and useful information on the matrix network
Correct information on the website
A usable website.
This roadworks farce must be costing the haulage industry a fortune, but no one seems to care.
IronEddie:
What’s the solution though? Can’t close motorways on week days or weekends as even more traffic would be affected. Doesn’t seem to be a solution where everyone wins.
Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk
Road closures are necessary, I get that. But is it too much to ask that:
Major roads aren’t closed at ridiculously early times (motorways closing at 8pm)
Roadworks don’t overrun by years
If a major road is closed, the alternative major route isn’t also closed
The diversion route doesn’t also have roadworks/closure
Diversions appropriate for HGVs
Correct and useful information on the matrix network
Correct information on the website
A usable website.
This roadworks farce must be costing the haulage industry a fortune, but no one seems to care.
Well highways agency like all government departments will have had to make savings, cut budgets.
Possibly that no they simply can’t deliver what you’re asking. I agree with you it should be like that. But maybe the powers that be simply ain’t up to the task.
All I ever see is them sticking cones out at 9pm then 4-6am they are taking them away. Hardly seems worth it especially when you see them working on 10ft of road with a 3 mile come restricted road lol
The RHA are less use than a dead cat quite frankly so I wouldn’t hold my breath on anything changing soon. England of a night is utterly insane. Just the odd night here and there does my noodle, so dunno how you night lads cope. I normally like night shifts too
Some closures I can understand, they are doing a lot of gantry work on the M62/M60 at the moment. I sure as zb wouldn’t want to be up on a cherry picker during the day with all the clowns too busy looking at their phones.
I’ve gotten so used to them shutting the slip roads onto the A34 andA303 M3 at random nights i don’t even bother trying to remember so just take the diversion route of A343 even if the bloody things arent shut.
It apparently was at 4.30 this morning ended up following 2 Bca transporters through there with them banging the cars into every low tree for 11 miles hate to think the cost of that diversion.