Forum Topic

endless road works

I know that Thames Water are replacing their pipes. (I also recollect that they dug up most of Brentford a couple of years ago to do that. I guess those were different pipes. Or the wrong pipes. Or it was simply my imagination that this replacement was already done.)However, the recent spate of road works seems poorly planned and executed. There has been few warnings or advance notices - was there any notice of the current closure of Half Acre? And there is little thought about the impact of traffic - particularly at nearby junctions or adjacent traffic lights.So thank you Thames Water for making Brentford one big chaotic set of road works ... twice in 3 years.

Alan Clark ● 5433d8 Comments

Made me raise an eyebrow when the TCM's CV mentioned 'culture, tourism and Sunderland'in the same sentence - never seen that done before. Back to the road works at Ealing Road/High Street. There is one chap whose role is to alter the sign that says 'These works will continue for 22/23/24/25/26/27/ weeks... rest of your life' as each week goes by.

Ken Collins ● 5425d

Sounds like a complete prat, what's to manage?

Vanessa Smith ● 5429d

It would be great to see the 'TCM' job spec, the objectives and the key performance targets for the role. My suspicion, given the state of the roads, is that one target must be related to 'extending the time that visitors spend in Brentford'. The idea of digging up half the streets and setting up mutliple temporary traffic lights is genuis. This means the average 'dwell' time for people passing through (by car, by bus) must easily have doubled. Excellent result - and so easy. Big bonus due for the TCM!!

Alan Clark ● 5429d

What Town Centre? It has a bit of a High Street here and a bit of a High street there, a few stores on the Great west road and a few shops scattered about elsewhere.If anything needs managing its the road works.The works at Ealing Road and The High St are still there over 6 months since I went abroad. What are they doing that takes so long with such little noticeable improvement?  How much has that cost?

Anthony Waller ● 5429d

Front page article/interview with the newly appointed Brentford Town Centre Manager made me laugh.Such a waste of money.  If people want to come somewhere they'll come.  If people don't want to come then they won't.  We're talking about Brentford here, just one of the many typical London suburb towns that no-one living more a couple of miles away or otherwise passing through will have any reason to come to, or want to come to.  That's not a dig at Brentford, but why can't we get real and accept that Brentford is just a typical London suburb town that serves its immediate community and an element of passing trade ?.  It will always survive in that capacity, but let's not pretend it will ever be, or deserves to be, anything more, and whether it 'benefits' from one town centre manager or 10 town centre managers won't make a scrap of difference...Baffles me in this time of Council resource and staff cuts, affecting frontline services that really do make a day to day difference to people, there's still money to waste on Town Centre Managers for places like Brentford...TCM's are for places like Kingston, not Brentford.

Adam Beamish ● 5429d

And for taking so unbelievably long about it! And where is the sense in digging a hole and then just abandoning it to go and dig another hole some way away, and then another one and never fill one area up before they go and dig another one? The prolonged mess outside Brentford Library wa a case in point. For weeks I had to walk past lots of holes (and no one working on any of them ...) producing massive inconvenience to residents, library users and other traffic.

Maria Isabel Cunha ● 5429d

People will know this is genuinely one of my pet hates about living in this area - I honestly don't know of another locality which has 'suffered' so much from roadworks over the last few years.If it isn't Thames Water and their pipes it's TfL/LBH implementing some scheme or a statutory undertaker carrying out some 'emergency' work.  Rarely does it seem to be directly related to the implementation of a new development etc.I doubt there's any legal/statutory requirement to do so, thus why it seems there's a lack of a coordinated approach, with any number of roadworks going on within close proximity to one another.I mean, at the moment you've got the work on the A316 referred to in Vanessa's post, the traffic lights on Brentford High Street/closure of Half Acre, and the BT work on Kew Bridge (which I am unclear whether or not it has actually started or when it starts).Indeed my last point touches upon one of my other gripes - what's the point of having all this digital warning signs if the information displayed is wrong or unclear ?.  The warning sign heading into Brentford on the A315 clearly states that the work will take place "May & July" not "May - July", so taken at face value that implies that there'll be no roadworks in Brentford in June.  Whereas the warning sign on the A205 approaching Chalkers Corner from Sheen (which has already been there a week) gives absolutely no indication about when the BT work on Kew Bridge is actually starting, how long its scheduled to last etc.  Plain dumb.

Adam Beamish ● 5432d

Similar thread on W4 apparently there are also going to be works on the A316 too, West London seems to be mostly dug up for one reason or another all of the time.Advance Warning of Major Roadwork’s and Diversions on the A316 ChiswickTIS-204299 Event Great Chertsey Road (Chiswick). At the junction of Riverside Drive Timetabled Event These works will be carried out in various stages and will involve carriageway closures at times as ... 20/06/2011 to 08/07/201YG401109957 Great Chertsey Road, Chiswick. BTW HARTINGDON ROAD AND EDENSOR ROAD Works Proposed Transport For London Transport For London W/B4, PAVING, KERBS AND SIGN WORKS, SAFETY ZONE AND NO TM WORKS 23RD WEST BOUND, 24TH EAST AND WE ... 23/06/2011 to 24/06/2011YG401109938 Great Chertsey Road, Chiswick. JUST PAST RIVERSIDE DRIVE ON LC:50 Works Proposed Transport For London Transport For London RENEW SPEED CAMERA SIGN, NO TM REQUIRED, WEST BOUND DAY WORKS 09.30 - 16.00 MICK STOKELL 20/06/2011 to 20/06/2011MU585002139BRRZ--000004 Great Chertsey Road, Chiswick. STAVELY ROAD J/O Works Proposed Thames Water Transport For London Valve Exchange Main Size Less than 6" 18/06/2011 to 22/06/2011YG40096826 Great Chertsey Road, Chiswick. opp 70, 78 to 86Chiswick Comm School and opp21 Burial Ground Works Proposed Transport For London Transport For London Carriageway Resurfacing. Both directions on cw. Mon - Fri. 21:30 to 06:00 20/06/2011 to 08/07/2011Transport for London Ref. TN.000.3002023/Hounslow/01Streets Customer Services department 0845 305 1234 or www.tfl.gov.uk/contact

Vanessa Smith ● 5432d