Plodding up the M6 in Lancashire and ■■■■■■■ yesterday, noticed the Highways Agency are putting our taxpayers money to good use.
They have installed signs after the every junction, displaying the Highways Ageny name 
No useful phone number, just Highways Agency.
I’ve seen them somewhere else this week (possible m6 staffs) but it didn’t dawn on me that they where after every junction.
I can go one better than that. Saw them on the M1 in the 14 mile stretch of absolutely nothing between J14 and J15 with a group of workers with strimmers and lawn-mowers going at full tilt on the embankment. There isn’t a sign near where they were for miles. What’s the point ?
Well they have to justify their existence. They have all got shiny new people carriers like VOSA and they pretend they have power.
to be fair to them they are doing a lot of strimming at night and when ive come back up the m/way next morning they and the cones have gone. 
Perhaps they could give their staff lessons on how to re-lay a highway…or how to patch one up. It is a work of art when the french re-lay a road to see how smooth it is…and after a few months there is no ridges where trucks have been. Now take our highways…after a repair…needs doing again after a couple of weeks…or after laying a new highway…the gas and electricity companies rip it up…but never put it back to how it was…why are they not made to do it…if it was your house would you allow the builders to leave it half finished…no…nor would i…so why do they allow it to be done to the highways…and why do they not lay the correct amount of tarmac in the first place…our roads resemble a third world country…full of pot holes and tram lines…and causing untold damage to our vehicles…and who cares…
Rob K:
I can go one better than that. Saw them on the M1 in the 14 mile stretch of absolutely nothing between J14 and J15 with a group of workers with strimmers and lawn-mowers going at full tilt on the embankment. There isn’t a sign near where they were for miles. What’s the point ?
I,m getting a bit sick of all this road closure and grass cutting etc etc at nights why dont they do it during the day and leave us night drivers to the nice quiet stretches of lonesome motorway we have become accustomed to 
;);)…
Im amazed how well maintained and clean the roads are in France too Bob,
If you drive through Belgium you can take your hands off the steering wheel in Antwerp and get to Aachen with all the tramlines. Germany and the UK are on a par I think and Holland have to build a new road every 6 months as the other one sinks below the sea level.
truckyboy:
Perhaps they could give their staff lessons on how to re-lay a highway…or how to patch one up. It is a work of art when the french re-lay a road to see how smooth it is…and after a few months there is no ridges where trucks have been. Now take our highways…after a repair…needs doing again after a couple of weeks…or after laying a new highway…the gas and electricity companies rip it up…but never put it back to how it was…why are they not made to do it…if it was your house would you allow the builders to leave it half finished…no…nor would i…so why do they allow it to be done to the highways…and why do they not lay the correct amount of tarmac in the first place…our roads resemble a third world country…full of pot holes and tram lines…and causing untold damage to our vehicles…and who cares…
the new stretch of A1(M) at wetherby is a prime example …brand spanking new tarmac smooth as a baby’s bum…so 1 week later… …they decide they need to drill 12" bore holes every couple hundred yards roads spoiled…DOOOH !!! 
- Marky -:
truckyboy:
Perhaps they could give their staff lessons on how to re-lay a highway…or how to patch one up. It is a work of art when the french re-lay a road to see how smooth it is…and after a few months there is no ridges where trucks have been. Now take our highways…after a repair…needs doing again after a couple of weeks…or after laying a new highway…the gas and electricity companies rip it up…but never put it back to how it was…why are they not made to do it…if it was your house would you allow the builders to leave it half finished…no…nor would i…so why do they allow it to be done to the highways…and why do they not lay the correct amount of tarmac in the first place…our roads resemble a third world country…full of pot holes and tram lines…and causing untold damage to our vehicles…and who cares…the new stretch of A1(M) at wetherby is a prime example …brand spanking new tarmac smooth as a baby’s bum…so 1 week later… …they decide they need to drill 12" bore holes every couple hundred yards roads spoiled…DOOOH !!!
These holes are drilled by the company which is planning to over control and maintainance of the road. They drill bore holes usually around 3" wide and 12-18" deep and put the bore sample in a bag and send it off for quality analysis. If it doesn’t meet the required standards then there are extremely heavy financial penalties for the contractor that built the road. In simple terms, if the bore samples fall out of the borer in nice compact one-piece ‘logs’ then it’s a good indication that the road has been constructed well, whereas if when you retrieve the borer all you get is a pile of loose stones then obviously that’s a good indication that it’s not
I did quite a bit of work for the Leeds City Council Highways HETS Laboratory up at Horbury in Ossett and learnt a lot about road construction.
jammymutt:
I,m getting a bit sick of all this road closure and grass cutting etc etc at nights why dont they do it during the day and leave us night drivers to the nice quiet stretches of lonesome motorway we have become accustomed to
I’m with you on that one jammy - two drops in South London from Huntingdon are taking me eleven hours at the moment 
This week’s been awful - roadworks / strimming on the M25, M1 and sections of the A1 closed all together!
An hour and a half from Kew Bridge to Wandsworth - what’s going on?
On top of this whilst delivering in Wimbledon - Park Road there’s been all these tennis bat- wielding lemmings wandering about all over the place. You’re only about 100 yards from the tennis courts.
You should have the crowds at kicking out time after Henmon lost! It’s the only time I’ve been given a round of applause for reversing into a store, while the police stopped them from wandering underneath the trailer.
I think I need a spell on days to recover from it all… 
It is a work of art when the french re-lay a road to see how smooth it is…and after a few months there is no ridges where trucks have been. Now take our highways…after a repair…needs doing again after a couple of weeks
I think thats because the fench repairs are done by public companies, whereas ours are done by private contractors.
Cant see how that works for road repairs, i mean when it was local authorities doing it, there was no point bodging it as if it fell to bits the same workers got a bollocking and sent back out to do the job again. Private company does it and it falls apart, so what another set of workers just gets sent out and paid to bodge it again.
The blokes that go round doing the pot holes make me laugh. just lob a bit of tarmac in there and squash it in with your boot, or if he’s in a particularly conciencious mood he might slap it with the shovel a couple of times too.