‘Insane’ roadworks

Did those in charge of the works even consider the impact of the delays on businesses and being stuck in traffic – for weeks? Why weren’t they working on site until 10pm? This is inexcusable. If this was one of the busiest roads in any other country, they would have been working 24/7 and it would have been finished in a week. To compound their ineptitude, the traffic department could not even get the phasing of the temporary lights to work effectively. They were not on long enough going into Town between the hours 7 and 10am. It was even worse for those leaving Town between the hours of 3 and 7pm.

Nobody can possibly be keeping a close eye on the traffic delays. Are all their staff working at home?

Why were they doing it anyway? As far as I know there have not been any fatal or major accidents at this spot. But far more important is to sort out the Victoria Avenue crossing, which is downright dangerous. It is dimly lit and a fatal accident did occur there. It is particularly dangerous in the winter on a dark night when it is raining. It is virtually impossible to see anyone crossing – the lamp posts are too high and do not shine down on the crossing. I would readily accept Traffic sorting out that area.

But these same incompetents plan to install speed humps along Fort Road and have even asked for consultation. When has any States department ever listened to public feedback? It is merely a tick-box exercise. Why was this not made a 25mph area when they recently reduced the limit from 35mph on so many other roads? 25mph along Braye Road is simply ridiculous. They knew Fort Road was an accident black spot, but did nothing. The simple and easy solution is speed cameras. Just get on with it.

Whilst writing, I ask why are there still road humps at St Andrew’s Church? They served their purpose and are no longer needed. It is now pure and simply anti-green as vehicles have to slow down and then accelerate away, thereby emitting more pollution into the atmosphere. Get rid of them.

Almost all sets of traffic lights on this island are incorrectly phased. They are never on green long enough either. I have never seen anyone from Traffic physically standing at a set of lights to check the flow of vehicles.

The track record of this department is particularly woeful. This is the same department that spent a small fortune on narrowing the road to single lane traffic from the Weighbridge to beside the Town Church. It again caused so many delays that it had to be removed almost as soon as it had been completed.

There have been numerous accidents around the island recently – it cannot be simply coincidence that this is happening more frequently during all of these road closures.

I rest my case(s). All deputies connected with this department, please sort them out.

HARRY DICK-CLELAND

Sand Dollar,

Les Grands Loriers,

Vale,

GY3 5HW.

Editor’s footnote: A spokeswoman from Traffic and Highway Services responds:

We appreciate the traffic lights on the front caused frustration for motorists and added to journey times, and we are very sorry for the inconvenience, as we always are whenever essential roadworks are required. Scheduling roadworks, particularly on major routes in our small island, is not easy, and we need to balance the impact on commuters, businesses and residents against the urgency of the works, the availability of contractors and the cost of a project. Finding a solution that doesn’t inconvenience anyone and isn’t beyond the budget is impossible and so we do ask our community for patience and a little perspective. The works along the front were essential resurfacing works required due to the impacts of the high volume of traffic that use the inter-harbour route on a daily basis. We also took the opportunity to schedule other work at the same time to improve safety for all road users; these safety improvements form part of the States’ Integrated Transport Strategy. In addition, we ensured that other unrelated works could take advantage of the traffic management measures that were in place. These works were coordinated to ensure that they could be completed in one go and everything was completed on schedule.

As the works got under way, staff were montioring the impact on traffic with our contractors and adjusting the timings on the lights to maximise throughput, which brought travel times down to a more acceptable level. This involved the temporary signals being manually controlled outside of the times normally stipulated and we thank the contractor for their assistance in this regard.

Nevertheless, most of us are road users and we are all pleased that these works are finished.

Feedback and criticism is welcome as we are always striving to improve, but as should be the case for all of us, we would encourage everyone to keep that feedback civil.