ancient_mariner
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... and an abomination!
There are substantially less attractive cars around, but it's not pretty.
... and an abomination!
I found out the reason for this a couple of years ago. Apparently the digging is carried out by one contractor and necessary repairs by a different one. Now if I was an old cynic I would think that this means two council departments are both getting an incentive to work it this way, but that couldn't possibly be the reason could it?Not only there!
Last week, I was stuck in a jam for over an hour and when I got to the traffic lights, there was no sign of any work going on or having been done. Going back the other way the day after, no lights and no sign of any reason for them,

The roadworks crews no longer put up their own signage and lights etc. One "signage and safety lights" crew, (including traffic lights etc) puts that up, then the actual roadworks are done ( sometimes with help from the signage crew if human controlled signs are needed) and back to the signage folks for removal of said signs and lighting! If additional works are necessary (drainage, gas, electrics, phones or internet cabling) can also use different contractors and may dig up and repair the same section, several times over!!!![]()
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I've never understood why the British people accepted all the privatisation nonsense and the associated fragmentation of things like roadworks. As we have seen for decades now, all it's done is to increase the cost of public works and make them more troublesome.If additional works are necessary (drainage, gas, electrics, phones or internet cabling) can also use different contractors and may dig up and repair the same section, several times over!!!

That's exactlyThe roadworks crews no longer put up their own signage and lights etc. One "signage and safety lights" crew, (including traffic lights etc) puts that up, then the actual roadworks are done ( sometimes with help from the signage crew if human controlled signs are needed) and back to the signage folks for removal of said signs and lighting! If additional works are necessary (drainage, gas, electrics, phones or internet cabling) can also use different contractors and may dig up and repair the same section, several times over!!!![]()
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the way I feel about itBack in the summer a traffic light team put up the lights on one of our busier local routes on a Wednesday, another team working for a telecoms company dug the hole on the Friday morning.We had the "signage and safety lights" guy turn up in our town. He parked his van, set up the road closure causing tailbacks right through the town, whilst he sat in his van on his phone all day. At the end of the day he took his gear down.
The next day he repeated the whole business. But this time, the other crew actually turned up to to dig up the road.
And they wonder why our national productivity is low!