Road works on Barry Road

[pmcmullan]

Does anyone know anything about the resurfacing works that have just started outside my house on Barry Road? E.g. how long they are likely to be drilling tonight?

I know these works need to be done, but at this time of night during the week?

And does anyone know who makes these decisions? It would have been nice to have some warning.

Yours grumpily, etc....

[unknown]

absolute joke mate what a ridiculous time to start roadworks there right outside mine too

[binary_star]

Have to say I'm well fucked off too - noticed the sign at the end of the road by the church that says buses are on diversion between 8pm and midnight. Fucking midnight! The missus is thinking of complaining to the council. I've just got back from work and was hoping to get an early night as I have to be up at the crack of dawn. No fucking chance now, it's like being inside a saw mill!!

[binary_star]

Now the pneumatic drill is out... Yey!! Does anyone else think Monday night just after the clocks have changed is a bit wanky? Fri night or weekend would have been better surely?

[srisky]

I assumed that we somehow missed a letter of notification about the night time works - clearly I was giving the council too much credit, as it seems that there was never one sent out. We have a very young baby and some warning would have been greatly appreciated as we could have made arrangements to stay somewhere else. I hope the drilling doesn't go on until midnight....sounds like it has stopped....

....a letter of complaint to the council re: lack of notification given that it is a residential road and a school night

[TheArtfulDogger]

my house is vibrating softly and its not even on barry road

[hilili]

drives me mad !!!

[hilili]

drives me mad !!!

[TheArtfulDogger]

so mad you are repeating yourself

[EDOliver]

The idiot drivers will still be treating Barry Rd like a racetrack so I'm of the opinion that road " improvments" will make little difference - hopefully I'll be wrong!

[binary_star]

So the 'work' finally stopped at around 11pm, which was all well and good until at 4am some chap came to pick up some of the machinery. We had a brief respite from 4.30 until 5 when he came back again, then left at about 5.45. This goes on until...oh hang on he's still fecking here isn't he.

I can categorically say we got no notice about this whatsoever, my sympathies go out to those with children. Nice to know that the council have prioritised motorists, whose taxes won't have paid for the works over workers whose council tax probably has?? Council will be getting a sh!tty letter of me for all the good it will do!

[TheArtfulDogger]

hopefully with council spending cuts will see the end of financial year end roadworks budget madness

[srisky]

From what I can tell by the graffiti on the roads - there will be speed ramps at the ends of Underhill Rd where it meets Barry Rd but no speed bumps/ramps on Barry Rd itself. To my mind this is completely pointless, as drivers stop at the give way lines on Underhill Rd and do not speed along/across it; the speeding happens along Barry Rd.

Accidents at this junction happen for two reasons: (i) poor visibility at the aforementioned give lines on Underhill Rd (ii) speeding motorists on Barry Rd - as far as I can see neither issue is being addressed by these road works!

[trentk69]

I am pretty sure that the works that were carried out last night were separate to the junction works that have been happening throughout the day in the past few days. The reason being is that I have been emailing the council about fixing the potholes in the light controlled crossing, which were getting worse and worse, and only ever being remiedied by filling with hotmix, which washed away in the next downpour.

When buses and trucks hit the potholes at speed (how can they when everyone only ever travels at 30mph or less on this road apparently?) the fall into the holes with such force that it causes severe vibrations in the surrounding properties leading to cracking in masonery etc.

I think last nights work was to fix this finally, as they stripped the road right back then relaid the tarmac.

I wonder if this has been coordinated with the Underhill - Barry Road crossing, or if it will be dug up again sometime in the next 5 weeks worth of work scheduled for this junction.

No notice whatsoever for this work at this time at night for the surrounding abodes is very bad form though. I have a 5 week old baby at home and my wife would have definately taken her to the grandparents last night given notice, rather than try and sooth her through that racket - during the lead up to the work, the work itself and then in the early hours of the morning when they took the machinery away - was near on impossible.

However, no doubt though that my (valid) observation points that I have made in this post will be rebutted by some as rubbish and untruths as is seemingly commonpractice on this forum now.

[Penguin68]

As I have already noted, the effects of the raised areas will be to slow down cars crossing Barry or turning into Underhill, which means that this increases their chances of being struck by cars speeding along Barry. It is possible that the raised position of cars waiting to cross/ enter Barry will give them better visibility (which is good) but that is, I believe, an unintended consequence, if it happens at all. The ramp work will further narrow the junction for users of Underhill, again making easy progress off Barry and into Underhill a greater problem.

The problem is with Barry, a solution based around Underhill makes no obvious sense.

[James Barber]

Hi Penguin68,

Lots of dicsussion around the junction of Underhill Road with Barry Road and the collissions has taken place on another thread.

Hi trentk69,

I had taken up some casework about potholes on Barry Road.

Im not if that or another issue meant these works took place but not telling people and removing machinery in the very early hours afterwards is at best inconsiderate.

Would people prefer to have had the works take place on a Saturday rather than very late evening?

[trentk69]

Hi James,

Thanks for your reply. I think the issue here is that people are not upset that the work took place, or even the time it took place, it was the lack of notification that it was going to take place.

From what I have been told, there was only a bus diversion sign in place (I did not see this personally), but this did not indicate the time, reason or exact location of the work, so for the heavy machinery to turn up when it did was quite an unpleasant surprise for the local residents.

If we personally had been given notice that this work was going to take place at this time - we would have made arrangements for my wife and daughter to stay at the Grandparents place. Unfortunately, this did not happen, and with very loud noisy machines outside, and our house shaking from the work that was going on, it was an impossible situation in my household.

Dont get me wrong, I am glad this particular work is now done - as it has (or should have) fixed a problem that was affecting my house and a number of other abodes around me, but I question the forethought on the notifcation, and also the timing of this work, especially if this is separate to the Underhill / Barry junction - where it will likely be dug up again in the next 5 weeks.

Cheers

[Penguin68]

James

As the road works to further narrow Underhill etc. etc. are actually now underway (some days earlier than you suggested) my comments were in an appropriate place - 'road works on Barry Road' - this is the most up-to-date thread directly addressing the issue and I have used it - albeit the initial road works discussed on the thread have now appeared to move down to the Underhill intersection works. Frankly traversing Barry here is now a nightmare, with the junction at the southern end now severely narrowed (I hope just by the construction) and right-of-way given to traffic driving towards Whately Road (but of course as there is limited vision it is difficult to give way where you are obliged to, as you can't see oncoming traffic until you reach the actually junction). If 5 weeks of this doesn't lead to accidents I will be very surprised.

[binary_star]

To answer James' question, yes I would have prefered to have had the works take place on a Saturday rather than very late on Sunday evening/early hours of Monday morning. The point I made earlier about invonveniencing residents rather than motorists was not that the work shouldn't have been done, but the time it was done and the notice that was given. If inconveniencing drivers was a concern then either Saturday or during the middle of the day after rush hour could have been workable, surely?

I don't object to the works at all, I actually weclome the improvements but I am however severely hacked off that the first I heard of it was a pneumatic drill outside my house and that after that had finally stopped, I only had a five hour window to get some sleep before the noise began again at 4.30 in the morning.

And I might be being over-sensitive or a tad unreasonable, but you know what no apology, I've not been getting much sleep lately...

[srisky]

The preferred time for works would be friday evening -Sunday evening, avoiding overnight. However, if Sun night/early Mon morning was the only time possible then so be it. However, I very much doubt that it was a last minute decision to carry out the works at that time, in which case there is absolutely no reason that I can see for the lack of notice given to the residents. People may have had exams, job interviews, important meetings etc the next day, not to mention trying to get children to sleep. It is often said that consideration for our neighbours does wonders for the community and the local council should lead by example!

[michelle-b]

From Southwark:

"I can confirmed that the resurfacing required a road closure and the night job was necessitated by the demand of London Transport to minimise traffic disruption.

The Area Technician did put out Traffic order on the lamp columns adjoining the area to be resurfaced a week before works commenced on site. But unfortunately no advance notification letter was distributed to the residents due to an oversight."

So thanks to London Transport for putting traffic before residents and thanks to Southwark council for not bothering to tell anybody!!