Neverending roadworks with invisible workers and nothing ever changing

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We have a road-widening project going on now in our town. The barriers, cones and signs were put out months ago and the speed limit reduced and heavy machinery parked up in the sectioned-off area.

However, I drive along that road multiple times a week, at different times and on different days (weekdays and weekends) and there is never anybody there, nor vehicles/machinery moving or any visible progress week in, week out. They clearly have done some work at some point, but it appears like they made an enthusiastic start and then just got bored and lost interest.

I totally get that these projects take a huge amount of planning and preparation beforehand and throughout - both in offices and on-site - and that unforeseen circumstances can arise. But surely a very large part of making changes to roads is, erm, those changes actually being made to the roads?

They even now put up signs assuring people that they are working, even if you can't see them - but how can this be for weeks or months on end? Doesn't the fact that everybody is questioning why nothing is visibly happening or changing over a long period give them cause for consideration?

I used to live in another European country, where they put up the signs and fences, then you heard a lot of noise and saw constant busy activity for a period, and then the job just got done and completed. Why isn't it like that here?

Also, why do they section off tens of miles of motorway all at once - with lower speed limits to mainly protect the cones and resulting long traffic jams - rather than one or two miles at a time, finish the job on that section and then move on to the next? Is there some kind of financial incentive to the companies doing the work? Do they get paid by the allocated mile every week after putting out the cones, rather than for the time actually spent and work actually done?

Yanbu. Same in our town, temporary traffic lights go up, cones and signs a plenty, any workers there doing anything? Not on your nelly! We've had temporary traffic lights on a bridge for a year now, no work done yet. There was an hilarious Facebook post where everyone was was wishing happy birthday to the traffic lights!

There was an hilarious Facebook post where everyone was was wishing happy birthday to the traffic lights!

We had some temporary traffic lights that had been sat there for so long doing nothing that someone advertised them on Facebook marketplace as free to a good home, one careful owner 😆 after that the council promptly took them away 🤣

It's daft. I was so tempted to move the cones and traffic lights out of the way after month 3 of no work being done in our village. We moved away and afaik they still haven't completed their "traffic calming project" and the traffic delayed in rush hour is anything but calm.

I’ve notivced this often they put up cones and then have two blokes there for weeks rotating stop/ go signs. I suspect this is a decent gig in summer and horrific at this time of year.

So frustrating. Its the same in our town. Endless roadworks with no sign of anyone actually working. A major road had overnight work going on for months, but the cones were just left up 24/7 causing rush hour delays rather than the cones being removed in the morning and replaced in the evening.

This does piss me off a lot.

Came past Manchester the other night on the M6 variable speed limit was set to 50 for an extended distance, can't remember how long but it was at least 20 mins driving and there was literally no visible reason why this should be the case. Visibility was fine, the roads were not crowded etc.

Report to highways agency there's an email address on their website . No one is allowed to just cone off the road they have to actually be working there.

Roadworks seem to be monstrously inefficient most of the time. They try and hide this behind the fact that the project is essential and will improve things. That may be true, but most of the time I think it could be done much more quickly and efficiently. I drove 150 miles up the M1 recently, and about 100 of those were roadworks, mostly just miles of cones and nothing happening.

There's a new road layout that's been ongoing near me for nearly five years. They appear to have run out of funding and nothing has been happening for at least a year. The diversion and lane restrictions that motorists have to follow have been in place for years now with no end in sight. The county council is apparently evading giving any update on when - if ever - this work might finish.

I get the feeling it's how they plan the work. They are installing new refuge areas on the motorway near me, except for instead of closing half a mile of lane 1 and finishing one, then closing the next half a mile and doing the next, they close miles on end of lane 1 while they sort of start a little bit of each of them then they sit there incomplete for even longer. If they are doing the 'you do your bit in 1, then move to 2 and the next lot can start behind in 1, then delays by the first company hold up everyone else behind, for the full length of the closure.

I don't doubt that it is a logistical nightmare, but honestly I have noticed it seems to have become more of a thing since H&S made them change cones for that barrier that it looks like they bolt to the road. As I bet that is a nightmare to lay they only want to pay that contractor to do all 20 miles in one hit rather than shuffle the same 1 mile bit 20 times, whereas when it was cones they could have the cones picked up in 20 minutes.

Where I live on the edge of Glasgow it took 18 months, endless road closures/diversions and several million pounds to put traffic lights on a roundabout and build 4 parking spaces.

I can't comment on local roadworks but I used to work in motorway maintenance and motorways aren't coned off for no reason. Contractors face financial penalties if they over run programmes.
Long stretches may be coned off because safety barriers are not yet installed properly, or there could be trenches that are open. It is time consuming, dangerous and costly to put out and take in cones and it is totally inefficient and causes more disruption and delays to the travelling public to just close off very short stretches of road to cover a day's work.

They have to put out solid temporary barriers rather than cones because so many construction workers have been killed by idiots driving through the cones.

It's a bit more nuanced than that, though. They clearly have permission to put up cones/barriers/signs etc.

It's obviously an official roadwork project that's approved and taking place - which I'm sure is what the Highways Agency or local council would confirm - it's just the sheer length of time that it takes, mainly because of no progress being made or any signs of works for weeks and weeks.

I think you live near me. It’s infuriating!

I may well do; but sadly, I think it's an experience that's 'enjoyed' by people up and down the whole country!

A lot of the time they can’t do it on small sections as councils won’t allow multiple works on the same section of road so they close the whole lot and work in sections anyway!

But why do they dig the trenches if they have no plans to do what they need to in them for weeks and weeks before filling them in again?

I appreciate that there's necessarily going to be a lot of disruption and that many jobs legitimately take a long time - but they wouldn't take nearly as long if people were actually working on them regularly.

I wonder if they may have lots of different contractors, who do their bit as agreed, but with no co-ordination between them all - so that the firm putting up the barriers is engaged to do so two months before the firm digging the trenched behind them begins? There's clearly no single company that's frightened of being fined for over-running - otherwise, they wouldn't just abandon works indefinitely; unless they maybe agree a two-year timespan for a job that they could reasonably do in a month? Either way, investing in that huge specialist machinery must cost a fortune - you'd think they'd be wanting to earn money using it rather than just leaving it idle at the side of the road for weeks and months.

Of course, I want all roadworkers to be as fully protected as they possibly can be, and I know that there are loads of selfish, idiotic, dangerous drivers out there; but if there's nobody at all there for weeks on end, then surely nobody's safety is at risk?!

We have little windy country lanes near us where you can legally do 60mph (whether you should is a different matter, of course). Meanwhile, there are motorways and trunk roads across the land where you can only do 30/40/50 indefinitely, purely to temporarily 'protect' the land behind the barriers.

There was an extended roadwork project on the road where our offices were which lasted close to 3 years despite the initial timeframe indicated as 8 months. A lot of small businesses complained as they lost business due to people not being able to drive and park in the area. They requested to see the contract with the council under the freedom of information. This was granted about a year and a half into the project. Turned out that the council did not stipulate any penalties for not completing the work on time and construction company simply delayed work while continuing to bill the council for the time.
This won't be an isolated incident, I am sure. I now work at a hospital and we have a similar arrangement with the hospital transport. They bill us regardless of whether the transport actually came out and the contract allows it. That's what happens when inept people oversee private contracts.

I can’t really comment on specific sites, but off the top of my head, it could be to do with delays in supplies of materials, or machinery or labour; it is more cost effective to do all the trench backfilling, say, in one go than in piddly little sections, they might encounter unexpected ground conditions somewhere else which need to be assessed and suitable solution designed etc.

The speed limit/barriers thing is also to do with the volume of traffic, particularly HGVs. If you have a crash in a country lane you’re only likely to injure yourself. If you crash on a busy motorway there are likely to be numerous other vehicles and people involved.

I think most of it comes down to it being more efficient and safer to leave the barriers etc out for the whole job rather than putting out and taking in short sections.
Safety for site personnel is far more important than a few minutes added onto your journey. eg 10 miles at 50mph takes 8.5 minutes, 10 miles at 70mph takes 12 minutes 🤷‍♀️

Road widening started near me just before Covid…finally finished. Different sections of it have kept being dug up to repair every few months!! Hardly any time goes by but there’s another diversion/another set of temporary traffic lights! It’s a job life here…