Roadworks

Admin Joined : 28 Apr 2007 Posts : 260

Tell me about it. I usually get the bus at 6.40am but on a Thursday I usually go in about an hour later. The queue of traffic going to Edinburgh this morning was terrible Mad

_________________
Andy

Fear knocks at the door, knowledge answers and finds nothing.

Joined : 29 Aug 2007 Posts : 55

I see in the Advertiser that our beloved councillors are still on the case of trying to get to the bottom of whats going on with the roadworks, if they can't get anyone to own up and tell us what's going on then who can?

Admin Joined : 28 Apr 2007 Posts : 260

I had a great time travelling today. This morning the bus kept stalling at every other bus stop. Eventually the driver gave up and we had to get another bus which made me about 20 minutes late for work. Then this evening the temporary traffic lights were set for maximum disruption making me late again Mad

_________________
Andy

Fear knocks at the door, knowledge answers and finds nothing.

Joined : 17 Mar 2008 Posts : 51

Joined : 29 Aug 2007 Posts : 55

The good news is that it looks like the work at Ploverhall could finally be nearing a close, this morning it looked like the whole junction had been resurfaced. The bad news being that yet another hole has appeared at the foot of Liberton Brae which must be one of the most dug up bits of road in Edinburgh!! traffic was backed up to Alnwickhill this morning..

Joined : 17 Mar 2008 Posts : 51

They obviously realised that traffic might actually start moving (heaven forbid!) on the A701 so had to do something to stop it. No wonder most people now head up to the A702 which is so much quicker due to the lack of traffic lights and roundabouts - for the moment anyway

Joined : 29 Aug 2007 Posts : 55

6 MONTHS!!! Yes, 6 months since the work started on the A701 and it's not much better now than it was then, at Milton Bridge the junction might be better but there the road markings at terrible towards the roundabout. Ploverhall, why do we still have temporary lights when to me it looks like they could either make the new lights live or revise the temp lights to allow two way traffic. I've still no idea of what the plan is at Old Pentland, at least here though the traffic can still flow (so far anyway). Lets hope the planners and workers here have nothing to do with any large scale projects!

Joined : 17 Mar 2008 Posts : 51

Certainly they won't win any awards for quick or quality workmanship. The lights at Auchendinny don't seem to be on all the time while the ones at Gowkley Mess and Bilston have never been on when I pass them. I see the completion date given on the Cooncil website has now moved back to July - wonder if any bookies are taking bets on that being missed?
At least it is only taxpayers money they are spending!

Admin Joined : 28 Apr 2007 Posts : 260

As musicman says I can't understand why we can't have two way traffic lights even temporarily until they can finish it off. I just can't think of a good reason not to do it as it would not take much effort Rolling Eyes

_________________
Andy

Fear knocks at the door, knowledge answers and finds nothing.

Admin Joined : 28 Apr 2007 Posts : 260

As if it wasn't bad enough with the traffic lights at the old Ploverhall roundabout, now the roads people have decided to make things worse by putting up traffic lights at Bilston Mad

_________________
Andy

Fear knocks at the door, knowledge answers and finds nothing.

Joined : 20 Jun 2008 Posts : 13 Localisation : Penicuik

To me "roadworks" implies a temporary situation that is expected to pass in a reasonable time and that normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. This, on the other hand, seems to be a totally half-cocked mess of ideas thrown together as an alternative to the A701 re-alignment, almost as though we need to be taught a lesson in humility. "Let's take a well operating stretch of road and see how we can f**k it up. Oh, and let's also plan it really badly so it takes ages and causes maximum disruption". There was a sign apologising for delays in the work due to utilities having to be rerouted - well, duh... should have thought of that one, eh? A couple of extra roundabouts would have done, as long as they weren't laid out like Gowkley Moss, which has a weird radius curve on an opposite camber - what's that all about? Then there's the pathetic wee stretches of bus lanes - have buses really had a problem, and who's going to enforce them? I want answers! Help me, I don't understand!

Joined : 17 Mar 2008 Posts : 51

You are not the only one, ironlung! Now it seems like the work at Ploverhall is almost complete but they have still not activated the lights while the new crossing at Bilston is still not operational. I would not be surprised if they wait until the school holidays begin to switch it all on then declare it as a great success when traffic flows very well (largely due to the reduction which always happens outside term time).
The work outside IKEA just seems to plod along with very little change when I pass there each weekend.
Does anyone know how much the whole project cost, would also be nice to know original budget and timescale to compare with the ACTUAL ones - probably all big numbers.

Joined : 13 Feb 2008 Posts : 23

Does anybody else ever wonder if all this tinkering with road layouts and the introduction of safety measures might be - as well as inconvenient - potentially downright dangerous?

I'll try to explain. When I'm driving on roads unfamiliar to me, I reckon there's some unconcious alert in my head that makes me take additional care.

However, when driving on roads (once) familiar to me, while I know I should be careful at all times, somehow, the "alert" goes from red to amber. Any new feature is just dangerously confusing.

When they added a third lane on that stretch by IKEA, there were a couple of occassions when driving towards Edinburgh when I treated the middle lane as an overtaking lane. And we all know about the poor sods who, confronted at the Gowkley Moss Roundabout, turned right to get to Roslin.

Admin Joined : 28 Apr 2007 Posts : 260

You're not the only one that has found the roadworks at Ikea confusing. I've heard the same from others. What really annoys me is when you are just getting used the the layout, they move the cones about to confuse everyone Rolling Eyes

_________________
Andy

Fear knocks at the door, knowledge answers and finds nothing.