any of you guys work nights? these night time road closures are getting beyond a joke. it seems that every single night there is at least 1 major motorway completely closed with a 30 odd mile diversion route round the countryside. last night for me it was the A38, M6 and then M6 again. according to the sign just before J28 there was no access or through route for hgvs on the A38 southbound from where it was closed at the A61 and everything must go down the M1 and across the A610, which is not an insignificant amount of extra miles and time. however on closer inspection there is absolutely no problem with following the car diversion on the b-road through swanwick and ripley and coming back on the A38 at the next junction, a mere 5 minute detour.
Then it was the M42 at Coleshill, no access from J9 so instead of following the posted diversion route all the way through coleshill down to the J4 M6 and back up it was out with google maps and a much shorter route through curdworth onto the a38 towards spaghetti was sourced, but then the access to the M6 north was shut as well so i was sent on a wild goose chase through the leafy back streets of Erdington, witton and perry barr before being allowed on a J8. why not just send us down aston xpressway and up the 34?
surely that would be it for one night? oh no… m6 not only closed 5-8 but 13-14 as well. i got caught in that on monday night, no warning on any of the matrix boards, instead informing me on every one that the A5 was closed at J12 instead so there i am tootling along when suddenly everything comes to a halt just after J12 at 0345 and we didn’t move an inch for 30 mins. took then an hour and a half to get from there through stafford town centre and back on at 14 . last night i planned ahead and came off at J11 up to cannock and then a5, a38 back to bradford. usually takes about 2:30 from wednesbury up the m6 and m62 back to yard but did it via a5, a38 in 2:20 which surprised me, although it is 10 miles shorter according to google maps but there’s all them rbts on a5 from j11 which slow you down.
Sick of all these diversions and closures every night, think i might go back on days.
I fully understand your frustration with this, it’s almost like it is done to maximise the inconvenience with these “ambush” closures, no warning or information just shut the whole carriageway.
I had this last night with The Office of Comedy Diversions for Scotland shutting the slip road onto the Eastbound A8 at Coatbridge on the Bellshill “link” from the M74
No warning just a load of cones across the road and then a game of “follow the arrows” on portable A boards.
Why they feel the need to completely shut the whole carriageway especially on three lane Motorways I do not know.
I would like to say you get used to it but you don’t. It’s the lack of warnings & signage that does my head in. Last week the matrix boards were lit up around darlington saying A1 closed after A305! Where’s that FFS? Around Biggleswade I found out. No mention of the M11 being closed from j8 to j7 until 1 mile before the junction. This week,Monday night, I just caught a sign about the A1 being shut at catterick north up to scotch corner, that was at the 300 yard marker for the A19!
As an afternoon driver it’s just something I have to put up with. Went to Nottingham recently from Birmingham 11 hours into my shift and the M42 was closed so had to divert around that. Then on the way back to Birmingham the M6 was closed so again had to divert. Pulled my card with about 8 minutes spare. Worse luck to my TomTom with Live Traffic was telling me I wasn’t going to make it and kept trying to get me off the M42 at J9 to divert over to the A38 to miss a so called 25 minute delay on the M6 at J6 where it was closed. It was 02:30 and I just didn’t believe it and chanced my arm. Thankfully it paid off.
Got caught out last week too on the way back from Thetford. A14 was closed at Catthorpe and so was the M6 at Spaghetti. We’re not supposed to stop on this route but 2 road closures and a smash on the M1 left me with no option.
They do seem to close too many road at once, often where one road is a diversion route for the other. They’ve been closing M6 and A5 at the same time for instance.
M5 sth at 14 to 16 last night shut follow the diversion and half way through there be a board that says Diverted traffic <— some numpty hadn’t run the route and spotted a local diversion in place running the same time , you can be sure someone turned off and spent ages running round back country roads…
WTF happened last night - coming out of Cambridge milton, I can’t get onto the M11/A14 in either direction, and the so-called “diversion” was like having a blank piece of paper with PTO written on both sides FFS!
Diversion took you further west down the dual towards St neots, and then **** me, I get directed to exit up a slip road, do a 180, and end up right back where I started at Milton again WTF■■?
Last month I was running up to Grimsby and Scarborough at night. There were a variety of road closures on that made life ‘difficult’. A46 around Newark / Lincoln meant I often had to stick to the motorway. A1 restrictions on and off the A46. M1 J31, M1 J20 to J19 when I was heading for Crick. M180/M18/A180. Currently the M69 has night closures so as I use the A46 I end up having to go via M6J2 to get back to Coventry for the tip.
Last weekend I had a run down to Portsmouth, to get there and be told my collection had been cancelled and I had to return back to the Midlands away from the A34 as it was closed, but just as I was passing the bridge with roadworks just outside Portsmouth the office called to tell me that the A34 was open and, oh, by the way, could you do a thing at Milton Park for us Which was a good thing the A34 was open as having done that route in the past I knew I certainly would be having a night out. As it was I was back just inside of my 15 hours…
I’m hoping it will get better. The A46 has been reasonably clear for some nights now. It was a bit busy the other night with that transporter fire on the M1 but I had already decided on the A46 anyway as I was given a deadline with narrow margins.
Still, as long as I carry my truckers atlas and snooper, I can usually navigate past most issues. The Snooper is pretty crap on diversions. However I tell it, it wants to go back and use the original route So I just turn the volume off, navigate by map and use it to remind me where the speed cameras are
I don’t mean for this to sound preachy or sarky, but, the Highway Agency’s website details all the road closures and roadworks. A quick check before you set off could save a lot of grief later on.
deancross4c:
I don’t mean for this to sound preachy or sarky, but, the Highway Agency’s website details all the road closures and roadworks. A quick check before you set off could save a lot of grief later on.
deancross4c:
I don’t mean for this to sound preachy or sarky, but, the Highway Agency’s website details all the road closures and roadworks. A quick check before you set off could save a lot of grief later on.
Yeah. But they often get it wrong too. A lot of the time they were saying the M180 was closed between two junctions but actually one lane was left open. Or that the A46 northbound was closed for a particular time when it was open and it was the southbound that was closed.
Or, that the road was open for one lane but was closed with no diversion suitable for a lorry above 7.5t. That was nice of them…
I work permanent nights and normally just sit and fume quietly as I’m diverted miles out of my way. Very, very occasionally road closures can do you a favour though - a regular 3 store delivery run has been disrupted by M27/A27 closures this week (so I’m told) so it’s been split down 2 & 1 to make it more do-able. Meaning I get 2 shifts of O/T doing the 1 store
As an aside to the topic rarely a shift passes where I don’t get diverted somewhere whilst travelling all over the south and whether you’re a maps person or not a decent hgv satnav is a godsend IMO
deancross4c:
I don’t mean for this to sound preachy or sarky, but, the Highway Agency’s website details all the road closures and roadworks. A quick check before you set off could save a lot of grief later on.
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 it seem these last three years that the overnight closures of our roads has totally got out of hand. The Highways Agency should be held accountable to some one but it seems that they are a law totally unto themselves.
Only the other week the M6 North was closed overnight in three separate locations 5 to 7, 12 to 13 and 15 to 16. If you remember not so long ago closures started at 10pm then they moved it forward to 9.30pm now its 9.00pm when the traffic flow is still very busy resulting in long tailbacks trying to get off in to one lane, its an absolute joke!
I used to check out the HA website regularly but, as others have said, it’s rarely up to date or even correct most of the time. It never mentioned the A189/A19 roundabout being shut, never mentioned scotswood bridge being closed at nights, it still is btw, also managed to miss the A1M shut at Bowburn & Blyth services, oh & the A1 at the A47, all on the same night. It’s ok though as it only added 90 mins to the journey never mind the fuel costs.
HA website is a waste of time as are the advance warnings they put up days or weeks before. They change them at the last minute. I’ve got used to it now - it’s very rare I can do my normal route without at least one diversion.
I don’t mind these night closures as it means we are busy delivering tarmac to the re-surfacing gangs, recent jobs include m1 j21& 20-18 m6 j1,a46,m6 9-10, m62 j11 a38, 446, among many others, normally this is the busy time of year for this type of work until the end of the tax year when the money has been spent
due to cost saving measures the type of tarmac used these days only gets put down in a thin layer, which in general don’t last long at all!
at this time of the year the water gets through and under the tarmac then freezes and pops lumps up leaving pot holes all over the place!
mind you it keeps us busy
the way things are going more and more of this type of work will in future be done at night which must be a pain for the drivers that work nights!
Well I’ve just checked my route tonight and the app on my phone says m61 south closed jct 5 to 4 and northbound entry from m60 closed so I went on h a website that doesn’t know .
so i was sent on a wild goose chase through the leafy back streets of Erdington, witton and perry barr before being allowed on a J8. why not just send us down aston xpressway and up the 34? 
. last night i planned ahead and came off at J11 up to cannock and then a5, a38 back to bradford. usually takes about 2:30 from wednesbury up the m6 and m62 back to yard but did it via a5, a38 in 2:20 which surprised me, although it is 10 miles shorter according to google maps but there’s all them rbts on a5 from j11 which slow you down.
Which was a good thing the A34 was open as having done that route in the past I knew I certainly would be having a night out. As it was I was back just inside of my 15 hours…
So I just turn the volume off, navigate by map and use it to remind me where the speed cameras are 
