Even roadworkers get confused. Images of Canberra

yellowsnow said :

p1 said :

While I frequently feel this way about road works in Canberra (the one dude who built the GDE on his own must be proud though), I have actually seen active work going on at this site each day since they started.

Possibly that’s because the work is being funded / overseen by the Defence Housing Authority rather than the usual semi-incompetent Roads ACT rabble.

Sometimes it seems like RoadsACT planning meeting must go a little something like this:

‘Hmmmm, how can we inconvience the people of Weston Crk even more? I know, let’s carry out roadworks on all major accesss roads SIMULTANEOUSLY!!! And let’s hire contractors who are exceedinglly slow and/or go bankrupt halfwway through the projeect. And then let’s ensure that the one remaining road, Hindmarsh Dr, is made all but unasable at peak times through excess traffic and traffic lights which are so poorly synchronised that traffic can’t move!’

‘That’s brillian, Tony!!! That’ll serve them right for complaining about Cooleman Court parking, chip seal road resurfacing, school closures and loss of open space to make way for the McMansion ghettoes of Molonglo. And while we’re at it, let’s put in traffic lights onto the cotter rd onramps onto Tuggeranong Parkway, to slow things up even more’.

‘Of course! And let’s apply for $300,000 of federal funding to pay to slow the onramp! Because we can”t possibly use our own money. We have nothing left because of the Sky Whale’.

This x1000

LSWCHP said :

JC said :

yellowsnow said :

What, Canberra has roadworkers? Where??

Plenty of roadworks and signs and delays, but I’m yet to see anyone actually working on Heysen St in Weston (where this pic iwas taken) or the Cotter Rd and Parkes Way roadworks.

And as for ACT roadwork completion dates, they’re even more rubbery and unreliable than Swan’s budget figures.

What do you reckon the fairies come in at night and do the work? Though yes do agree at times there appears to be bugger all happening, when you reckon if they had a few more people it could all be over and done with. Blame the contractors though, not the government.

Back when the Kings Avenue overpass was being slowly built I caught a taxi to the airport. As we went past the site the driver, who was a Thai, said something along the lines of “You white people are crazy. In Thailand we’d have a thousand men working on that job, and it would take 3 months”.

Now this is not Thailand, and I believe I understand the economics of the situation, but I also really believe in my heart of hearts that if there were more blokes working on these jobs they would be completed more quickly. The overall result would be less financial cost to the community through person-hours wasted in traffic queues, petrol consumed in idling cars etc.

I drive along Parkes way every morning, and I’m surprised if I count more than a dozen men working on all those kilometers of roadworks.

It ain’t right.

Spot on again although if nothing else they’ve been very consistent over the last 40 years ie. skeleton staff and steady as she goes boys!

I noticed tonight, that the roadworks outside Shell in Charnwood (where the roundabout is going in) has EXACTLY the same signage issue (coming from the St Thomas end)…

Don’t say “I told you so” when I involved myself in the many discussions on this site about speed limits

By the way, what are the members ACT Policing’s Traffic & Media units, who went on television a little while back ranting about the people screaming through the Barry Drive roadwork zone, think of this fine piece of signage, hey?

JC said :

yellowsnow said :

What, Canberra has roadworkers? Where??

Plenty of roadworks and signs and delays, but I’m yet to see anyone actually working on Heysen St in Weston (where this pic iwas taken) or the Cotter Rd and Parkes Way roadworks.

And as for ACT roadwork completion dates, they’re even more rubbery and unreliable than Swan’s budget figures.

What do you reckon the fairies come in at night and do the work? Though yes do agree at times there appears to be bugger all happening, when you reckon if they had a few more people it could all be over and done with. Blame the contractors though, not the government.

Back when the Kings Avenue overpass was being slowly built I caught a taxi to the airport. As we went past the site the driver, who was a Thai, said something along the lines of “You white people are crazy. In Thailand we’d have a thousand men working on that job, and it would take 3 months”.

Now this is not Thailand, and I believe I understand the economics of the situation, but I also really believe in my heart of hearts that if there were more blokes working on these jobs they would be completed more quickly. The overall result would be less financial cost to the community through person-hours wasted in traffic queues, petrol consumed in idling cars etc.

I drive along Parkes way every morning, and I’m surprised if I count more than a dozen men working on all those kilometers of roadworks.

It ain’t right.

JC said :

Blame the contractors though, not the government.

But the Government awards – and manages – the contracts! They should impose stricter conditions, including penalties for lateness – and shouldn’t accept lame excuses like ‘it for two days days, and we forgot to factor weather into our business model’, ‘we don’t work after 3pm, on weekends, or during school holidays’ or ‘we dug a hole and were shocked to find fibreoptic cable/sewerage system – no one warned us there would be underground services there, and that delayed us’.

Seriously – when I wrote last year to RoadsACT and the Economic Development Directorate to complain about various projects were being delivered 6 months plus after deadline, these are the excuses they provided me with!

yellowsnow said :

What, Canberra has roadworkers? Where??

Plenty of roadworks and signs and delays, but I’m yet to see anyone actually working on Heysen St in Weston (where this pic iwas taken) or the Cotter Rd and Parkes Way roadworks.

And as for ACT roadwork completion dates, they’re even more rubbery and unreliable than Swan’s budget figures.

What do you reckon the fairies come in at night and do the work? Though yes do agree at times there appears to be bugger all happening, when you reckon if they had a few more people it could all be over and done with. Blame the contractors though, not the government.

yellowsnow said :

‘That’s brillian, Tony!!! That’ll serve them right for complaining about Cooleman Court parking, chip seal road resurfacing…

Funny you should mention chip seal. The area in the photo which has been dug up was chip (re)sealed about six months ago….

DrKoresh said :

ABC129 said :

Is Tim bereft of common sense?

Should they have covered it up? Yep.
Should Tim use a bit of common sense? Yep.

Is it now just about impossible to get out of Weston Creek in the morning without encountering roadworks on every single effing road? Sadly, yes 🙁

+1 Get over it Tim

Yep, definitely agree here. Tim is being daft.

p1 said :

While I frequently feel this way about road works in Canberra (the one dude who built the GDE on his own must be proud though), I have actually seen active work going on at this site each day since they started.

Possibly that’s because the work is being funded / overseen by the Defence Housing Authority rather than the usual semi-incompetent Roads ACT rabble.

Sometimes it seems like RoadsACT planning meeting must go a little something like this:

‘Hmmmm, how can we inconvience the people of Weston Crk even more? I know, let’s carry out roadworks on all major accesss roads SIMULTANEOUSLY!!! And let’s hire contractors who are exceedinglly slow and/or go bankrupt halfwway through the projeect. And then let’s ensure that the one remaining road, Hindmarsh Dr, is made all but unasable at peak times through excess traffic and traffic lights which are so poorly synchronised that traffic can’t move!’

‘That’s brillian, Tony!!! That’ll serve them right for complaining about Cooleman Court parking, chip seal road resurfacing, school closures and loss of open space to make way for the McMansion ghettoes of Molonglo. And while we’re at it, let’s put in traffic lights onto the cotter rd onramps onto Tuggeranong Parkway, to slow things up even more’.

‘Of course! And let’s apply for $300,000 of federal funding to pay to slow the onramp! Because we can”t possibly use our own money. We have nothing left because of the Sky Whale’.