I sometimes think the UK is going backwards, I went on a business trip to Scotland and endured enough roadworks to drive a man insane.
On my return I got on the A1 at Scotch Corner and found a sea of solid traffic, 3:30pm and the road was solid, this was the same for some 15 miles and then you see it, a massive large load blocking two lanes so for much of the trip this has taken the entire A1 meaning no traffic can pass, then as we get to a three lane section the traffic trickles past - at a guess some 25 miles needed to get past one large load.
Why on Earth do we continue to do this, we move massive loads in broad daylight at a time approaching Rush hour, in this case it took me almost 90 minutes to get past, and by then it was the middle of Rush hour - Call be a cynic but moving these things in the middle of the night when the roads are all but totally empty would seem a wise idea ?
One person said to me (at a Council he worked at), it was to do with meeting Ferries and other deadlines so in effect the entire road system pays the price.
After calming down I then went on another trip, this time to Bristol and then up to Oswestry.
Bristol in my mind is always the land of road works, for years now I've travelled to Devon and Cornwall on holiday and I can't remember a time the M5 has not had roadworks at Bristol.
Anyway, I make my way down, through 3 lots of roadworks, have the meeting, leave at 9pm - the hotel was 300 yards from the M5 junction, and ... the M5 was closed for ... Roadworks - the Detour took me (you guessed it) SOUTH and then some 10 miles later you turn around to go North.
How the hell someone gets paid to make these decisions I'll never know, so I do 10 more miles to get where I started then have 135 miles left to do, 3 more sets of road works on the M5, then I see a sign M50 closed (for Roadworks), I'm loosing the will to live now, get to the M5/M6 Junction and the M6 South is closed (for Roadworks - seems to be a pattern here), a nice queue South all probably going on a detour North if Mr. Detour has any influence.
Get off onto the M54 and yup, roadworks - three lots of Roadworks so I think that's something like 9 seperate sections of Roadworks today !
Even better was getting around Shrewsbury, I thought Milton Keynes had a lot of roundabouts but this is a mere child fantasy against Shrewsbury.
Sat Nav constantly said, in 500 yards take the roundabout, then you go over it, and in 500 yards take the roundabout, over that, rinse and repeat - I lost count, perhaps 10 roundabouts, all within a mile or less of each other, fuel economy goes out the window here and I almost called the Council to suggest they pop some roadworks on the roundabouts to keep the theme going.
Someone said to me once, I don't know why they make motorways so long in America - I think it's simple, it stops them going stir crazy.
The only plus side, if I had a swear box in the car that night at £1 a word, I think I would be well in excess of £250 if not more.
The final nail in the coffin of my misery was returning home the next day, I went through some roadworks, another round of multiple roundabouts, fought my way through Stoke on Trent (which was no worse than expected), then thought I'll take the M1 as Derby is always busy at 5pm, ah here we go - signs light up "M1 Closed Northbound due to accident" - so I pop through Derby OK - no issues and I know it's coming, go down a shortcut to miss out the Motorway and there it is "ROAD CLOSED for roadworks" - I swear someone's having a joke at my expense here ! I turn around, down a road to take perhaps a 7 mile detour, get out onto the first main road and ... I'm in a queue for ... I can't say it ... beings with R ... sounds like Bodeworks .... Get through that, and finally get within 3 miles of home .. ah hang on what's going ... ah for Feck sake ... ROADWORKS ... I may as well put my entire salary in the Fricking Swear box ...
I think I'll just give up.
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