Portsmouth Road Widening At Frimley Park Hospital

[AlexRS2782]

Drove past today and noticed the signage indicating work starts there shortly. It mentions road widening so I assume it's being made 2 lanes in at least one direction (probably the FPH side), so I assume it will involve moving (or removing) the current shared pavement / cycle lane nearer to the car park, to make provision?

I cant see them duelling it in Frimley direction as I doubt there would be room.

Anyone know anything more about it, link to plans, etc?

[bigdom]

I had a look over the weekend after seeing it, two lanes as you suggested on hospital side, combining existing cycle & pedestrian facilities.

http://mycouncil.surreycc.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.a...

[AlexRS2782]

Makes sense in a way as it means the left lane will essentially become the queue for FPH that tends to crop up at certain points of the day. No more having to sit in that

With 2 lanes it should also mean no more risk of head on prangs which you currently get when some of the larger vehicles, lorries, etc, decide to head onto the other side of the road to avoid the queue even if there isn't room for them to do so.

[AlexRS2782]

I see this seems to have ground to a halt at the moment. It's been nicely dug up and fully caged off for the past month or so now with no work whatsoever taking place

I wonder whether they'll actually get it done in time for their quoted completion date

[Frimley111R]

They have found some cables that they didn't expect and now no-one seems to know what to do or who they belong to, hence the hold up. I recommend cutting them and seeing who shouts first!

[SVTRick]

Typical with any work involving Highways
If it was Utilities the council would attempt penalise the contractor.

One rule for highways and one for others.

Anyway if you want to chop the cables don't start moaning when you have no
internet or power.
They could be old MOD power cables as they used to have network from Aldershot Generation
facility which fed essential services and MOD depots.

[AlexRS2782]

The thing i've noticed a lot (more so today as I was at FPH), since they closed the area off is the number of people walking in the road towards traffic rather than crossing the road at the lights.

Young lad in his 20's nearly got clipped by a cyclist who was cycling along happily on the correct side of the road and didn't expect to have someone walking towards him. Then later a guy in his 50's, who looked like he was a consultant at FPH, was walking towards Frimley and nearly got clipped by an artic as he was walking in the road but so engrossed in his tablet and not paying attention he didn't see it.

Idiots.

[Frimley111R]

Nothing new. Late last year I was coming home, it was dark and I saw a man with his kid trying to cross between the roundabout and the crossing at rush hour. Absolute tt.

[SVTRick]

Well its the same situation on the A30 before to get to Egham at the junction for Englefield Green.
The council and their contractors have been tossing it off there for months now.

Big Bucks highways contracts sealed with nice fat brown envelope, holiday homes & trips abroad.

M4 near Newbury miles of 50 limit and restricted width.
Yesterday Friday at 14:30hrs spotted three guys working ?? WTF is that about.
At least at the Coral Reef their was a small army working on the road alterations.
More fk ing traffic lights though

[Frimley111R]

Same on the M3, miles and miles coned off and hardly any progress/work. It must be an absolutely brilliant job working anywhere in that industry.

[SVTRick]

Frimley111R said:

Same on the M3, miles and miles coned off and hardly any progress/work. It must be an absolutely brilliant job working anywhere in that industry.

I agree there, however I think there is work being done but feel the size of the work force
needs to be increased and introduce an extra shift to take advantage of the daylight hours available.

I worked on M25 during the earth works stages in the 70's - 80's and extension of M3 to include Lightwater Bypass.
It was common to work 07:00hrs until dusk and many of the heavy equipment would have two operators to keep up with targets.
Road haulage trucks from Twynersh Pit and the Wraysbury Pit would run 7am till 7pm
Engineering Plant & Engine Fitters like myself would work longer hours to ensure equipment was
always serviced and repaired to minimise any downtime.
That would often require major works to be carried out on site including engine, transmission and under carriage repairs.
Good days. Long hours, good café food and plenty late beers