South Circular roadworks - excessive disruption

[Rockets]

Is it Thames Water again?

[Sue]

14 hours ago, Rockets said:

What work are they doing outside ED station? Another route in and out of Dulwich disrupted...it's becoming a badly organised joke.

No idea, but whatever it was was backing up the traffic right up Lordship Lane.

There were four way (it said) lights before the roadworks, and a whole lane of the road dug up (on the station side).

[Earl Aelfheah]

2 hours ago, Rockets said:

Is it Thames Water again?

I'm not sure, but think it might be. Looked like there were pipes going in.

[Earl Aelfheah]

On 27/03/2025 at 13:06, Earl Aelfheah said:

I'm not sure, but think it might be. Looked like there were pipes going in.

Walked past yesterday, it's not Thames Water, but Conway on behalf of Southwark Council. 

Don't know why they couldn't have done it alongside the night time resurfacing of that stretch a couple of weeks back.

[Rockets]

Ah so it's part of the Melbourne Grove Streets for People works then. Madness that the council goes ahead with this when there are so many other works disrupting traffic in the area but I suspect year end budget surplus spends are at play here. Who at the council is responsible for the co-ordination of this type of thing?

[Penguin68]

New advice on these works

 

[Earl Aelfheah]

Thanks for this. Useful to know. Glad they're doing this overnight, otherwise it would be a nightmare.

Edited May 1 by Earl Aelfheah

[Penguin68]

This is the second page which I failed to save properly. Sorry

[malumbu]

Walking past the road works yesterday and it looks like they were making good progress.  Traffic at 5.30 pm coming up from LL fairly light and no tail back.  Thames Water works by Mount Adon a pain, but TW a different story....

[LadyLordship]

Overnight works / road surfacing that should have happened last night, and tonight, have apparently been postponed for a month. No letters. No follow ups. Just word of mouth amongst businesses opposite the junction 🫣😶😩 apparently due to TW leak that has sprung up - not that I can see where, but the local rumour mill is rumouring. 

Glad so much progress can now be seen, but it’s gonna take longer to complete than the originally planned: “13 weeks from 3 March” 😶‍🌫️. Does anyone have any confirmed / solid progress updates? 

 

 

[jazzer]

Went through there yesterday and whahay, the bus stop outside the vets/Toolstation was in use again and no barriers or roadworks in place or being undertaken. Unless they are hopefully not going to resume. 

[malumbu]

Saw this article in the Guardian about pensioners in Italy who help advise on construction work, and it made me smile with the interest in road works in the area.  Not that this interest is limited to pensioners I add.  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/24/you-feel-useful-to-society-italy-umarell-busybody-pensioners-go-professional

[jazzer]

OH FFS, please don't quote from that rag

[malumbu]

It's a light hearted comment 

[Moovart]

1 hour ago, jazzer said:

OH FFS, please don't quote from that rag

".....Try talking and getting on with neighbours, it makes life so much easier helping each other out, chatting, talking, laughing, crying and having fun together. "🤔 

I'm confused 😕 

[ab29]

On 07/05/2025 at 19:33, LadyLordship said:

Overnight works / road surfacing that should have happened last night, and tonight, have apparently been postponed for a month. No letters. No follow ups. Just word of mouth amongst businesses opposite the junction 🫣😶😩 apparently due to TW leak that has sprung up - not that I can see where, but the local rumour mill is rumouring. 

Glad so much progress can now be seen, but it’s gonna take longer to complete than the originally planned: “13 weeks from 3 March” 😶‍🌫️. Does anyone have any confirmed / solid progress updates? 

 

 

How can this work be taking longer than 13 weeks? Does Southwark council have too much money and doesn't know how to spend it?

[Penguin68]

5 hours ago, ab29 said:

Does Southwark council have too much money and doesn't know how to spend it?

Actually so long as no work is being done, and mostly it isn't being done, the only cost is to business and the general public is extending the costs of disruption. And it's mainly TFL who are bearing what build costs there are, I believe. And why should anyone in administration of public works care about the cost to the economy of extended public works? No skin off their wallets. Southwark certainly doesn't care about disruption to the general public and businesses, they still get their taxes paid. 

Edited May 31 by Penguin68

[Rockets]

It seems to be the actual works get completed but there is always a delay for the new traffic signals - the DV/Red Post Hill junction was the same.

[ab29]

posted in error

Edited June 2 by ab29

[Penguin68]

On 31/05/2025 at 12:05, Rockets said:

but there is always a delay for the new traffic signals

These are the things that could have been entirely planned for well before any work started. The wiring, the sequencing, the timing could have been fully designed beforehand. It needs to be tested in situ, certainly, but it should be able to plan the installation for as soon as the infrastructure is in place. It's as if Microsoft built a computer and then decided to design and implement an operating system to work on it. The whole thing about what will be a complex crossing surely would be designed first (when do cars and when do pedestrians move). Which is what the signals are about. 

Edited June 1 by Penguin68

[ab29]

So the works supposed to end on 8th of June and of course it has not happened. There is now a new hole dug out by power network  - would be boring if it's thames water all the time - next to a church where the turn to College Rd is.

And to add to the misery in the area, Dartmouth Rd will be closed from 30th of June. Till 17th of July. Not thst snyone believes in the end date.

[Penguin68]

It may be that the power network work is part of the junction build, in which case the appallingly poor planning and allocation of work is even worse than I'd feared, or it may just be coincidental. All that appears to be holding the full opening up of the junction is the new traffic lights to be made operational, which should have been the first thing planned. If these works were being undertaken by a commercial company it would be bust by now. As, probably, are TFL and the council, but they can just go back to the money tree. (Wait for the council's cheerleaders to weigh in now...) 

[ab29]

@Penguin68 I will not be surprised if we are stil talking about this in June 2026 🙂

[Penguin68]

When I started this thread in February the works were scheduled to last, quite ridiculously, to mid June, it is now the end of July and they are still not complete, even though there has been no work at all for weeks apart from some overnight tarmacing and line painting on the 25th July. The 'emergency' lights are still working, the replacement lights still covered and the safety light work to improve pedestrian crossing still not switched on. What a complete shower those responsible, and I use that word quite wrongly, are. Actually the junction seems to be working, broadly, OK, so why the hell can't they finish it? Until they do it's still a hazard. 

[Pugwash]

If I remember correctly, the responsibility for the traffic lights may rest with TFL. The long standing debate over the last 10 plus years re this junction, was that TFL had refused both Southwark Councillors and MPs request to add a pedestrian phase to the lights. I also vaguely remember many years ago, the newly installed lights at CP Rd and  ED Road were delayed by TFL for weeks. They were there but not switched on.