Road Closure Rant

[zebo]

A couple of times recently an 8 mile stretch of country road has had a Road Closure sign, with no indication of where it's closed. Knowing where the closure is allows people who know the area to work round it, avoiding huge diversions. How people who live or work along the road are supposed to manage I don't know. Do other areas have a similar problem? This is Norfolk, maybe says it all.

[bookbinder]

Isn't it enough to know that it's closed?

[zebo]

No, if I need to get to somewhere along the road, say 4 miles along, do I drive along it, come to the closure, turn round and take the diversion? Maybe I take the diversion then find out that the closure is after my destination. All we need to know is that the closure is in ?? village or bridge, some indication.

[bookbinder]

Hmm. I can appreciate your problem, zebo. I've seen some similar signs, but with a rider such as 'Access to South Farm (or Lion Inn) still open." It would be handy if all areas did something similar. I'm in West Yorkshire, by the way.

[ubasses]

We tend to get pre-closure signs advising us the road 'will be closed here from xx to xx.
At least when the road closed signs go up we know how far along we can go. Also live in a village with long country roads.

[Buenchico]

We have just as much fun here in Suffolk. (Maybe it's an East Anglian thing?).

The Needham Market to Bildeston road (9 miles) has had intermittent closures for over a year, with the 'Road Closed Ahead' signs giving no indication of exactly where it's closed. Some people have taken who've wanted to go just two or three miles along the road have followed the 'Diversion' signs (for 30 miles!) only to find that they've been left on the wrong side of the road closure (which shouldn't have affected their journey at all) and they've then got to travel a further 30 miles to get back to where they started!

A year or two ago I encountered some roadworks affecting both the A14 and some roads around Bury St Edmunds. To confuse things though, there were further roadworks taking place at the same time, meaning that the diversion routes overlapped. I followed 'Diversion' signs for 12 miles, only to end up back where I'd started!

Stowmarket is fun to drive around at the moment, with 'find an open route to Asda' presenting a different challenge every day to drivers. That's because there are lots of different (planned) roadworks going on, all with their own 'Diversion' signs, plus some emergency gas main repairs. Several 'Diversion' signs now lead to dead ends and it's total chaos as everyone tries to turn around!

[zebo]

We've had a ride through the closure signs this morning and the closure is about a quarter of a mile from this end, which is avoidable by taking two other roads through the village. The signs beyond the closure are still sending people to Swaffham, down the Brandon road and along the Watton road, at which point you're likely to still be on the wrong side of the closure! All it needs is the additional words, 'at Ashill' to avoid a lot of wasted miles.

[Hopkirk]

I've had similar recently. It said closed ahead so I followed a tedious diversion. Back on the road I again found signs saying closed ahead. When I got to the closure, it must have been daytime only as cars were happily passing through.

[woofgang]

here in Hampshire, MOSTLY road closures are listed on the county council website together with the contact details for the department or utilities company who have arranged the road closure...its one of the few things they seem to do well....might be worth checking on your council websites. Informally I find local facebook pages useful.