A 66 Road Closure
Who their right mind would give authority to close both sides of the A66 Penrith to Scotch Corner from 7th to 22nd of September , causing complete and utter chaos.
No diversion sign s of any kind. Lorries blocking lanes because the have no other way to go.
Police stopping them and taking photographs. Madness.
Comments
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Who their right mind would give authority to close both sides of the A66
Highways England..?
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I don't think these decisions are taken on a whim. On the sheet link given by Tintent it does say these are night time closures over the following seven weekends. It also gives the reasons for the complete closure:
Please note:
We had initially expected that we could
keep the road open using two-way traffic
lights for the Sandford to Walkmill Bends
resurfacing work. Following further
investigations, we will now require full
closures to allow us to carry out a deeper
reconstruction of the road. Please see table
on the opposite side.Unfortunately roads have to be repaired from time to time, if they didn't get repaired then the road would be closed for a far longer time? Sadly it is a fact of modern driving.
I did notice yesterday that on the western bypass near us there were warning signs about the closure.
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Unfortunately roads do have to be repaired and it is not always possible to avoid closures. To be fair to them they do seem to be trying to minimise disruption and from their leaflet, originally intended to keep the road open:-
We had initially expected that we could keep the road open using two-way traffic lights for the Sandford to Walkmill Bends resurfacing work. Following further investigations, we will now require full closures to allow us to carry out a deeper reconstruction of the road. Please see table on the opposite side.
As to the signage, or lack of, it might be worth contacting them to point this out. I can only assume that something went wrong in this respect. Although even with good signage, it won't stop alternative routes becoming congested.☹️
Edit
I see CS beat me too it😀
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They do sometimes get it "wrong" one of the bus routes where we live was being resurfaced ,so the buses were "on diversion"only for the diversion route to be closed to enable it to be "dressed",which caused a few problems as the only other road is a lane with passing places,
Ps the road dressing was curtailed after about 3 hrs of chaos
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The A66 is an important route, what is going wrong with UK roads.
It's such a shame that roads in the UK are not constructed or repaired to the standard of roads on the Continent. Continental roads can cope very well with extremes of temperature without the surface fragmenting and subsiding. Perhaps British Highways Engineers should take advice from Continental Engineers how to construct and repair roads properly.
K
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The real issue here is one which the powers that be have been told about lots of times, but keeps being ignored. Cross country routes in the North are shocking. Close any one and it's a huge diversion. Same with railway routes as well.
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Since I posted a similar response to CS I will also answer this.
Yes, and we have been diverted on this route. Closure in this instance for other reasons. It does happen.
Folk also moan about the state of the roads and the damage done to our vans / vehicles. At least in this instance they are trying to do something about it.
Also, let's not kid ourselves, even if they had managed to keep it open with traffic lights, there would still have been severe delays.
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Is it just the road works on the A66 at Kirkby Thore which is the problem? The minor road from Appleby to Penrith via Bolton and Cliburn is an OK alternative for caravans .
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I left Keswick yesterday (Saturday)and luckily for me Sat Nav picked the closure up before I came to the Penrith M6 roundabout. Matrix boards there indicated closure, and the RAC travel app.I am sure they did not take the decision lightly.
Our problem was we were booked into Grafham CC site for one night using the A1M but us going south on the M6 via Birmingham and then found again on Sat Nav the A14 shut due to accident and recovery on the Kettering section.
We managed to alter our Grafham booking to Commons Wood to stay on the M1.
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actually yes, I probably see the greater needs above my own.
Ok Chrystal what you suggest when roads need repairing?
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There was lots of full warnings far as us a hundred or so miles away and nearer, perhaps you didn't see them as you approached. And I can't think of a worse job than working in the dark on a road engineering project.
In a perfect world they would not do this but roads have to be repaired so that thousands of drivers can use them in the future, they gave their reasons in the leaflet I assume you think they are wrong? If so please state why
It's a few weekend of in-convenience for you and me versus years of trouble free use in the future, I am really amazed that you cannot see that? Are your travels more important than the travels of thousands?
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If you can't 'get your kicks' though.....
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I have traveled along the A66 twice in the last 7 days to drop off/pick up parents at Penrith, travelling from Hull. The are lots of signs alerting of the closure along the A1M, and in fact the total closures are only Friday evening to Monday morning, thus alleviating problems for weekday commuters. The traffic was very heavy on both trips and some dual carriageway lanes were coned off, but on the whole, the traffic was moving at a good pace (except one place where we didn't get about 30mph).
The views are so fantastic that it makes you forget the trials of the roadworks.
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For those who do not know, there are many parts of the A66 that are not dual carriageway, not even a wide single carriageway. Neither is much of it straight, so bends, brows, and roadside hedgerows leave just enough space for two lorries to pass at speed.
Resurfacing one half of any carriageway needs more than half the width to be available to work on, and there are parts where the remaining (less than) half would have heavy vehicles running on the grass, in the ditch, and rolling over. So much safer to close completely, resurface full width, and get it done faster.
If people want to complain about this they should focus their energy on why the full length has not been upgraded to dual carriageway. There has been plenty of time to do that, seeing as they started in the 1950s!
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Good post +1
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