Roadworks

What a complete waste of taxpayers money! What is the point of putting bus lanes onto roads where the traffic is free flowing? The only place around this area where there are queues is where the road north from Auchendinny joins the short dual carriageway - and even in the morning it doesn't take long to get out of there anyway. Its crazy putting in 50 metre bus lanes just as you come off a roundabout (north and south bound) - at the location pictured above I've almost been hit twice in the last week by drivers coming off the roundabout on the inside lane who swerve into the outside lane because they see green covered tarmac in front of them. And what about that 20 metre bus lane in Bilston that leads nowhere? If the council have money to throw at the roads they should be redesigning the death trap Gowkley Moss roundabout - at least 2 fatalities and countless accidents since it was built a few years ago. Once this work is complete the buses won't travel any more quickly, but all other traffic will be subjected to chaos at busy times. Anyone know how much of our money is being wasted on this madness?

As if all these temporary traffic lights are not bad enough, I had to go to the council skips in Penicuik to dispose of some doors. They had put up more temporary lights as they were doing some work at the pedestrian crossing near to the barracks. It looks as if it is set to last until 12 March http://www.roadworksscotland.org/ExtendedDetails.aspx?key=006710890000

I did a quick search to see if I could find the costs and according to this the costs for 2007/08 are £1.1 million and then £5.4 million thereafter http://tinyurl.com/2chdah The projects are being grant funded from City Growth Fund and SESTRANS.

Lot of info there Andy. Personally I'd prefer they just tarmacced the roads, made them fit to drive on and got rid of all the potholes.

Now that sounds like a very sensible idea and would have been money well spent. Instead it seems that speed bumps, bus lanes and traffic lights are more important

Well said, Wen! With the state of some of the roads and pavements around Midlothian, they'd be far better off spending the money on bringing them up to an acceptable standard than pouring it all into these hare-brained schemes which are only going to make matters worse!

Last night I had to go to Dalkeith and going there I went through Loanhead. However, on the way back, to avoid the traffic lights I came through Bonnyrigg only to find that the road through Roslin Glen has been closed due to subsidence

This morning I decided to take a diversion through the Bush to avoid the temporary traffic lights on the A701. However, they've now put temporary traffic lights there as well

Doesn't seem to matter which road you take at the moment - there's roadworks everywhere!

SueDOnym wrote:

Doesn't seem to matter which road you take at the moment - there's roadworks everywhere!

....and it is not just in Midlothian! I was over in Fife at the weekend where they have major roadworks on the A985 towards the Kincardine Bridge. Took the coastal route via Culross but they had traffic lights there too!

Does anyone else wonder if they are actually doing any work at Ploverhall as it never looks any different when I pass there? I would have thought they could have got it back to 2 lanes by now and there is no way the completion date of "end of March" is true.

According to the map here it says that it is to be finished by the 8th April http://www.roadworksscotland.org/MapSearch.aspx?lat=55.8743724322&lng=-3.1746829026&

Last night as I went to Roslin Institute, just before I reached Gowkley Moss roundabout I found that the workers had closed off the inside lane with cones. They had cunningly placed them just after a traffic island and there were no lights so that you did not find them until the last minute when you suddenly had to pull out to the outside lane

When I passed the Ploverhall junction today, I saw a new notice which apologises for the delay in completion of the work there - apparently they have to wait for "diversion of services" (ie: electricity cables, gas pipes etc) before they can continue.
Excellent stuff!!!

Just as things seemed to be improving, we now have another set of temporary traffic lights in Bilston

Admin wrote:

Just as things seemed to be improving, we now have another set of temporary traffic lights in Bilston

They never seem to make much progress on these works. Why can they not complete one section then start on the next bit??? (Maybe that is asking too much!) By the time they get it all finished the green bus lane coating will have all worn away!

The workers have now been out with their paint brushes at Gowkley Moss roundabout. If you are coming from Penicuik and want to turn towards Roslin there are now quite a few confusing white lines in your path now

I see that the completion date for the A701 works has now been changed to May. Makes you wonder though - Milton Bridge, all the digging and groundwork seemed to take place really quickly yet the painting of a few white lines and sticking some green on seems to be taking ages and still the traffic lights are not in place. Ploverhall, surely someone must have known that there where utilities in need of diversion before they even started digging. Bilston - who decides that a bus stop should be moved closer to the next one, eh!, Old Pentland starting to widen the road but now there doesn't seem to be much happening there either. The new set of roadworks in Bilston, whilst being a pain in the arse do seem to be getting worked on. Is it just me or does it look like there is something just not quite right in the way this whole road improvement (loosely using this word) scheme is being handled.

I've also noticed that they're putting in new, wider pavements on the stretch of road from the Gilmerton roundabout off the bypass right up into Gilmerton itself (past the Bernard Hunter yard, etc). I've only ever seen anyone walking up that road once in a blue moon, so it seems like a huge waste of money, when they could be spending it repairing some of the ginormous craters (otherwise known as potholes) which seem to be springing up all over the place.

What happened with the traffic coming out of Penicuik this morning - schools must be back ! I got on my bus at 7.50am and it took me nearly an hour to get from Penicuik to the Volkswagen garage at Bilston! and didn't reach Princes Street until about 9.15am. there seems to be a sign at the first set of temp traffic lights just as you come off the Gowkley Moss roundabout saying 'apologies for the delay we are awaiting utility cables being diverted' when is it all completely due to finish?, as I not really looking forward to get a 7.30am bus to get me into town for 9am.

I heard on the radio this morning that there had been an accident at the top of Mauricewood on the A702, so I am assuming that all the extra traffic through Penicuik was a result of this. Unfortunately with the temporary lights at Bilston it just caused one big long tailback, I was stuck on an X47 from 0755 until 0915 and as you will know there's not much reading in a Metro!

Ah that explains it then! Didn't fancy having to get an even earlier bus in every morning.

gonzo wrote:

Ah that explains it then! Didn't fancy having to get an even earlier bus in every morning.

Looks like we will all have to get earlier buses in the morning the way the traffic is due to the roadworks at Bilson. 1 hour to get into Princes Street this morning and I could see no reason why the traffic lights needed to be on. When will utility companies & indeed the council realise that the A701 is a major route into Edinburgh

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

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?

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

musicman wrote:

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?

Sounds great when the council who are responsible for that road don't appear to know what is going on. I see the men with the green paint were busy at Auchendinny today and it looks like those traffic lights will be on soon to add to the delays at Ploverhall which was back to single file again today!