road works

There have been a lot of road works around my local roads recently.

The first lot are gas works in the estate where I live. These have actually been on the go for ages. It turned out that this was in no small part down to the fact that the contractors hired to do the actual work went bust.

I'm not at all sure what they're actually doing. They only seem to dig bits of the road up and from looking in the holes, it's mainly around the actual junctions. So, if you've got the main gas line going down the road, where you have the branches to take gas into people's individual houses - those are the bits they've been digging up.

This also means they seem to have worked their way along the pipes, digging up small bits like that in sequence. This means that while there's been general disruption for ages, the specific bit that disrupts each house only lasts for a short while.

So when they did where I am, they completely blocked off the road for about 3 days, so I had to park in the estate, but then they moved on further up the road.

As I say, it has been a general pain, though, as there's bits you have to avoid and cones and barriers and machinery all over the shop.

The other bit of road works that's been a pain has been some way down the road. They appear to be putting in some bits for pedestrians to be able to cross the A325 close to the first of the big roundabouts.

At first I thought it was more of the gasworks, but then it became apparent it involved pedestrian crossing elements. I've been a bit cagey with how I describe that, because the place where they're putting it in is actually a rather busy part where both sides of the road are dual carriageway. However, it doesn't currently look like it will involve any sort of pelican crossing or traffic lights to actually stop the traffic.

I know from experience as it's where I often walk at the weekend that crossing these roads on foot is tricky so part of me is keen for them to put proper crossings in, but I'm very mindful of the fact that without lights or a pelican crossing, it won't actually make it any easier to cross.

The part of me that has to drive that way to get too and from work is also mindful of the fact that traffic already queues around there, so sticking in lights for pedestrians won't really help traffic flow. To be fair you don't see that many pedestrians around there as it's kinda in the middle of nowhere, so I think I'd prefer if there was a proper crossing with lights.

It does make you wonder where they get the money to pay for these things, though. I mean, gas I guess is private companies nowadays (although it wouldn't surprise me if actually it's coming out of the public purse - that's how a lot of these "privatisations" seem to work) but the pedestrian crossing has to be public money.

Not that I fundamentally mind them doing the work, it's more that if the country is so cash-strapped at the moment, surely that sort of money could be better spent. And if they have to do work on the roads, I'd have thought repairing a few more potholes would be a better use of the cash.