It is a dangerous job especially when you don’t have a full closure, trust me when a truck clips a cone at 56 mph and sends it flying if it hits you its going to hurt a lot, and it happens a lot… the amount of cars that get confused and enter the road works at full speed is unreal. -these are reasons why they now go for full closures, as the motorway using public including truck drivers cant be trusted to be sensible through road works
As for the abuse I had almost everything thrown at me including a soiled babies nappy because we dared to repair a road that if we hadnt would have had to be closed for a lot longer.
Don’t knock the black gangs they are only doing a job the same as you
It was amazing the amount of driver’s who used to follow us tipper’s into works access points because they were following too close to see what was happening, then the fun started trying to get them back out onto the carriageway again. Had one car that dropped into a trench, that didn’t go back on course under its own steam! As Rikki said it is a very skilled job, everyone has their own job to do (a lot of gangs are family members anyway) and the lads and lasses who do carriageway resurfacing are way above the scroats who lay secondhand tarmac on your drive!
Having just the hard shoulder/one lane open and working whilst hundreds of wagons tear arse past on the limiter and BMWs fly through at 90 is unfortunately a recipe for disaster. Given that many drivers refuse to obey temporary speed restrictions or have any sort of regard for the safety of workers as they ‘crack on’, they have no choice but to divert us all around the houses.
what about the tarmac
you have to use the back of a rake to push the loose bits to make a smooth edge
and the one bloke goes you can either do it or you cant
not being funny but any backward idiot can push a bit of tarmac with an upside down rake
then there was the people who put cones out ,(calling them traffic management is a bit over the top)
they finally put the last cone down and the motorway is shut
then he says ,just got time for a smoke now
yeah right ,its only ten pm ,youve got at least 4 or 5 hours of doing nothing before collecting up the cones
Why not park a speed (safety) camera van in the works?
It could start its night getting the lads cutting in at the last minute as the cones are put out, then spend the night getting speeders in the works area and just for a bonus get a few on they phones in the rush hour in the morning. Start at 8 in the evening do 12 hours if its as bad as u say he could take the rest of the week off.
bradthinks:
Why not park a speed (safety) camera van in the works?
It could start its night getting the lads cutting in at the last minute as the cones are put out, then spend the night getting speeders in the works area and just for a bonus get a few on they phones in the rush hour in the morning. Start at 8 in the evening do 12 hours if its as bad as u say he could take the rest of the week off.
Just a few coppers on the bridge and further down the motorway to pull them in.
I saw that and all I could think is what a bunch of ■■■■, they deserve 3-6 points - possibly a visit to the local Magistrate/TC.
But, there will be no more of that now we have the DCPC
villa:
what about the tarmac
you have to use the back of a rake to push the loose bits to make a smooth edge
and the one bloke goes you can either do it or you cant
not being funny but any backward idiot can push a bit of tarmac with an upside down rake
Tarmac is not something that is easily laid to a high spec.
the best pavers around cannot blend in with existing tarmac precisely, or create the run offs level, it will get the tarmac near but the finishing is down to the guys with a rake and broom. the standards for levelling on motorways is very high, Any imperfections and the whole run will be rejected , and that guy “pushing a rake” actually has to have the eye for the level and be able to blend in the new and the old seamlessly, I have had a go and trust me while it may look like he is just pushing a rake around, its not as easy as he made it seem. If there are any faults. levels out the company will have to pay to rectify it, and a motorway closure runs into £10,000’s a night. despite the comments on here they don’t employ idiots.
The company I used to work for and I suspect these guys too also lay Olympic standard surfaces for things like tennis courts, the tolerances there are tiny, to lay an area of wet tar that all over has imperfections less than a slate snooker table bed isn’t something that anyone can do. Ditto with runways - would you want your Jumbo to hit a big bump blowing its tyres because the guys who laid it were idiots? Just because they made it look easy only means they are good at their job, not “any backward idiot” can do it.
I think that’s taking if way too far. I’ve never travelled on a road like that in the UK, I wouldn’t want to use your snooker table. It must be a bit difficult to rake properly when you have a roll up or mobile phone in the other hand.
villa:
what about the tarmac
you have to use the back of a rake to push the loose bits to make a smooth edge
and the one bloke goes you can either do it or you cant
not being funny but any backward idiot can push a bit of tarmac with an upside down rake
Tarmac is not something that is easily laid to a high spec.
the best pavers around cannot blend in with existing tarmac precisely, or create the run offs level, it will get the tarmac near but the finishing is down to the guys with a rake and broom. the standards for levelling on motorways is very high, Any imperfections and the whole run will be rejected , and that guy “pushing a rake” actually has to have the eye for the level and be able to blend in the new and the old seamlessly, I have had a go and trust me while it may look like he is just pushing a rake around, its not as easy as he made it seem. If there are any faults. levels out the company will have to pay to rectify it, and a motorway closure runs into £10,000’s a night. despite the comments on here they don’t employ idiots.
The company I used to work for and I suspect these guys too also lay Olympic standard surfaces for things like tennis courts, the tolerances there are tiny, to lay an area of wet tar that all over has imperfections less than a slate snooker table bed isn’t something that anyone can do. Ditto with runways - would you want your Jumbo to hit a big bump blowing its tyres because the guys who laid it were idiots? Just because they made it look easy only means they are good at their job, not “any backward idiot” can do it.
toby1234abc:
Did you notice the Chuckle brothers that were moaning about the noise and the collection of very expensive cars on the drive.
The house looked like a lot of money had been spent.They could afford to move.
Defo milking the compo them two,not as stupid as they looked,surprisingly.
bazza123:
Imperfection less than a slate snooker table?!
I think that’s taking if way too far. I’ve never travelled on a road like that in the UK, I wouldn’t want to use your snooker table. It must be a bit difficult to rake properly when you have a roll up or mobile phone in the other hand.
If you had read… Its for competition surfaces. that level wouldn’t be used on motorways… but either way its a long way from the standard the guys who will offer to tarmac your drive will give you… the point remains these guys are pretty ■■■■ good at their job, and get paid accordingly- and its a lot more for “pushing a rake” than most truck drivers get.
Well just watched the show on demand and it got me thinking there’s some [ZB] witts in the world and most of them were on that show so Alan what you going to do , well I could tell him what he could do and his neighbour , and also that woman in the car didn’t have a clue that kid …“mam make sure your hazards are on”… the mother didn’t no [ZB] and as for the truckers come on lads we all want to get home but don’t take daft risks like that
Jamieg:
Not good to see trucks swerving round the truck that was shutting the motorway though.
I was a bit alarmed by that as well, proper BMW & Audi driver behaviour that. This profession isn’t half infested with [zb] these days.
Did you notice the last one to squeeze past was a inhealth mobile scanner daf,i hope it wasnt the member on here who works for them [/quote
it defo wasnt a inhealth truck it wasnt even an in health scanner and it wasnt a daf
As Rikki said it is a very skilled job, everyone has their own job to do (a lot of gangs are family members anyway) and the lads and lasses who do carriageway resurfacing are way above the scroats who lay secondhand tarmac on your drive! 
