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Anyone got a good website that gives quick roadworks info based on a route and approximate time a few days in advance?
I've had my fill of outrageous delays already this week (and all I've driven is 60 miles yesterday). Got a journey with a 'clear run' time of 3 hours each way to do over weekend (Hampshire to Suffolk and back) and the idea of long diversions and delays with the kids in tow isn't very attractive.
Anyone got a site that's not an endless stream of clicking through vaguely titled subpages with descriptions that are only meaningful to someone who is working on the project or is sad enough to know every junction and B road number in the UK?
Highways England if you read this - how is it that in the modern world and with all the information and resources available to you that you cannot convert major roadworks, trunk road and motorway closures into a user friendly interactive map with a future date function?
Google maps? Set a leave/arrive by time and date and I think it copes with what it knows.
But basically check before you leave or at least the night before just in case and again in the morning before letting google maps get you there by the best route.
It's much easier up here - there's a short section of the M6 just past Crewe that isn't 50mph
Hi Mike
Tried Google. It just says check before you go, which is sort of OK for the journey up (I always do a check for major shunts etc.) but we're up there for a couple of days and I want to know if/when there might be issues coming back.
Last time the A12 was shut on a quiet Sunday it added an hour and a half of diversions + nose to bumper traffic to a 3 hour journey. With two drivers not so bad but flying solo this trip.
I'd rather take the train but that's being disrupted by engineering works and outrageously expensive.
@scaled - there's a bit that's NOT 50mph?
I don't remember a bit that wasn't from our summer holidays, mind you 50mph would have been optimistic on the M6 the day we came back South.
It shows up things like marathons and marches for me in the city, was the road closure planned?
If it's shut before you leave it should give you the chance to work around it unless your going to cancel your trip before it not sure how it helps.
The A12 is the big concern (M25 I would just go North not South or vice versa)
If I google date, road and "roadworks" i get a load of text suggesting the road is wholly or partially shut but when I click through the link to Highways England, that same text isn't there and the information that is involves clicking through dozens of different announcements none of which seem to tally with the Google results.
If the A12 is shut or seriously overburdened in lane closures then trip may get canned. I have no desire to subject the kids to 9-10 hours trapped in the car over the weekend.
Did you try it in google maps are a route plan though?
Here you go
It wont plan a route but is a notational live site populate by most Highway authorities, and has a date filter
The M6 North of Birmingham is a festering sore. Work has been going on for years and is scheduled to last until 2020 at the earliest.
You might ask what they are doing? Converting to "Smart Motorway" is the official explanation. The unofficial version is that they are installing speed cameras the full length of the road. When done the limit will hardly ever be more than 50mph for "your safety". Nothing to do with revenue generation.
Of course as soon as the work is completed there will be another project to start. The M6 between Preston and Birmingham and the M62 Trans Pennine motorway are hardly useable during the working day. You cannot guarantee any arrival time.
You might ask what they are doing? Converting to “Smart Motorway” is the official explanation. The unofficial version is that they are installing speed cameras the full length of the road.
Yep smart motorways which is actually shown to work all over the place these days at moderating speed and improving overall flow, it works on the m42 and lower down the M6. I think we might also be getting hard shoulder use for busy times. It's the alternative just just building another M6 for the volume of. Traffic.
Mike - yes had tried Maps (and Waze) neither very helpful sadly.
You might ask what they are doing? Converting to “Smart Motorway” is the official explanation. The unofficial version is that they are installing speed cameras the full length of the road. When done the limit will hardly ever be more than 50mph for “your safety”. Nothing to do with revenue generation.
Dont forget the “speed reduced for emissions reduction”
So slow up the motorways with slower moving more congested vehicles..
Sounds about right.
So slow up the motorways with slower moving more congested vehicles..
Sounds about right.
Yep slower but consistent moving is much better than stop start or long stops. Smoothing flow is the best outcome even though it feels counter intuitive to hammering it for a bit then hitting the queue and repeat.
The M6 North of Birmingham is a festering sore. Work has been going on for years and is scheduled to last until 2020 at the earliest.
Actually they've just announced 2019-2022 on the section north of the current work.
I agree with you OP, it should easily be possible to create what you are looking for, but I guess Highways England or the DoT aren't actively looking for new ways to spend diminishing resources. Shall we just blame the Tories?
Google does this though it does depend on there being a reliable database that has the info in a accessible format. Last time I was stymied by a road closure (which it turns out had been in place for a while) I was actually in a town which had a major google campus.
I agree with you OP, it should easily be possible to create what you are looking for, but I guess Highways England or the DoT aren’t actively looking for new ways to spend diminishing resources.
I don't expect much of Highways England but I'm surprised Google or TomTom aren't scraping the HE site for roadworks data to incorporate in their apps.
edit ^though maybe they do. I just remembered seeing a road near me marked as closed on Maps and they can't have been getting that from live data.
Yep smart motorways which is actually shown to work all over the place these days at moderating speed and improving overall flow, it works on the m42 and lower down the M6. I think we might also be getting hard shoulder use for busy times. It’s the alternative just just building another M6 for the volume of. Traffic.
Live running hard shoulder on M3 is a death trap. Already had a scary moment with someone in front break down and stop having not reached a refuge area. The signs to close the lane are too far apart. Had I been stuck trying to pull out into next lane when busy I could have had a truck slam into me. It's already happened to someone who broke down though they had the sense to get out and off the motorway (yet advice is to stay in your car!!). I won't drive in that lane now unless it's coming up to the exit.
I am generally a fan of Google Maps, but this is a major bugbear of mine. Often doesn't even know which roads are closed now, let alone in the future. Government / Highways / Authorities websites seem even worse.