Opinion: Secret Thinker fumes at roadworks and closures across Kent as potholes go unfixed
05:00, 09 August 2023
Our roads are more pockmarked with potholes than the face of a teenager on a pure lard diet. So, you’d think I’d be overjoyed there are suddenly roadworks around every corner.
However, the ever-more cavernous craters blighting just about every street remain untouched despite this hive of recent activity.
At first I believed the rational reason these works had been unleashed upon us was because they had been planned to coincide with school holidays and therefore avoid the worst traffic jams by working at quieter times.
Sadly this is not the case as none of these hi-vis clad teams have been dispatched to fill holes.
Almost without exception they are all installing one type of service or another for a multitude of new-build houses and, far from mending our decrepit roads, they are making things even worse by digging up further previously untouched sections.
I’ve recently had need to travel extensively around the second biggest county in England and can tell you these bloody roadworks are plaguing drivers in, and around, all the following: Canterbury; Faversham; Maidstone; Whitstable; Dover; Sittingbourne; Ashford; Tunbridge Wells.
There may well be other places in Kent jammed up with such roadworks, but sadly I have personal experience of this list.
Whilst road closures are understandably annoying and anyone living alongside works in these spots has my utmost sympathy, it’s not the works themselves that annoy me - it’s the lottery of not knowing whether the road is really closed.
Surely a sign which reads ‘ROAD CLOSED’ should be self-explanatory and beyond doubt?
But you still get a steady flow of vehicles ignoring the instruction and driving beyond the sign until they reach the actual site of the works.
Of course, if the road is closed and barriers block their path then this inevitably leads to confusion, further delays and more frustration and chaos on our roads.
But, it’s not surprising drivers don’t believe these bogus road signs as I would estimate in at least 50% of cases the ‘closed road’ claim is complete nonsense.
Why workers insist upon marking roads as closed when they unquestionably aren’t I have no idea, particularly out-of-hours when any workers have long since knocked off.
There may well be some areas behind barriers, to avoid drivers coming into contact with ongoing work, but there is often plenty of room for vehicles to negotiate a path through the roadworks perfectly safely.
Come on guys, we’re all grown-ups. We understand work needs to be done. But if you need to close the road, crack on with it, if you don’t need to then don’t put up the signs.
It’s not rocket science.