8
Jul '09

Road Widening

   Posted by: lyle   in Cynicism, Driving, Thoughts, Travel

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Oh Good, just to make life even more fun, the M25 is going to be buggered until at least 2012. Not only will it be getting widened between Junctions 16 (the M40) and 23 (The A1M), but there’s also going to be similar work going on round the other side, from the M11 to the Dartford River Crossing.

I know, it’s hardly a shock to the system to know that there’s going to be even more congestion on the M25, but widening it by only one carriageway isn’t going to do a damn thing – well, not until Peak Oil kicks in, anyway. By the time the work is completed, I’ll pretty much guarantee you that it’ll go straight to being solid traffic jams again – just on four lanes instead of three.

What I don’t understand is why the planners for these projects (or the people at the start, when the M25 was originally being created) don’t just say “Oh fuck it, let’s actually think ahead for once, and make it six lanes in each direction, to cater for future demand.” Do the whole job at once, no need for further sodding about.

I’m sure there’s a good reason (rather than just that the planners are fuckwits) but it’s beyond me right now.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 16:01 and is filed under Cynicism, Driving, Thoughts, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 comments so far

Andy
 1 

Having used the M25 recently to get to Dover, I’m not sure how much good road widening around Dartford will do unless they widen the QE2 bridge as well. Oh, and add about another 30 toll booths. We queued pretty much from the A12 down to the bridge, where there’s only a handful of toll booths to squeeze into. So like, you say, if they widen from the M11 to the crossing, it’s just a few extra lanes to sit and queue in.

July 9th, 2009 at 07:43
Matt
 2 

When the M50 in Dublin was built initially it had two lanes in either direction, and all exits led to flyover roundabouts so by the time it was completed, it was already over capacity with long tailbacks at every junction at rush hour, and no proper barrier on the (albeit very wide) median, and work immediately began on widening it to three lanes with proper free-flow junctions and a substantial centre barrier.

So, we’ve had a 60kph speed limit (which nobody adheres to) for two and a half years now, with lanes routed all over the place (one exit was actually routed through the park-and-ride car park for a couple of months!), but it’s nearly finished. I can’t imagine how difficult it was to plan the project, keep it open while fundamentally changing all junctions, widening it to three lanes, and installing a proper concrete barrier on the median. I think when it’s finished it will actually cope with the traffic in Dublin for a few more years before it’s completely over capacity again.

So like, yeah. I know what you’re going through. :-)

July 9th, 2009 at 10:39
lyle
 3 

But this is my point – surely it would’ve been quicker/easier and even cheaper (in the long-term, at least) for the planners at the start of the project to say “Fuck it, let’s put in three (or even four) lanes each side, which’ll cope with far more traffic than we currently have” ?

July 9th, 2009 at 11:22
Andy
 4 

Clearly foresignt is not in great abundance amongst the planning community…

July 10th, 2009 at 08:35

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