Roadworks traffic control

[Boxster5]

Anyone noticed the madness of traffic control on minor side roads that have roadworks. The actual road where the roadworks are is a minor road with very little traffic but why oh why do they feel the need to control the “main” road as well which in itself is a minor road too. There is actually space for traffic to stand on the other side of the roadworks without affecting the “main” road. This is not the first time this has happened.
The actual traffic lights are blocking the highway that isn’t affected at all by the roadworks.
One thing is for certain, this wouldn’t happen in Europe so it’s not a carry over from Brexit!

Edited by Boxster5 on Friday 2nd February 13:56

[this is my username]

Traffic control for roadworks on our nearby main road is always frustratingly poor.

One common scenario is:

Utility company books traffic lights to protect road works.
Traffic lights go up at 8am.
Workers arrive at 14:00 and do an hours work.
Traffic lights get taken down at 17:00.

The other one is that the timing of the lights isn't adjusted to suit traffic flows - so big tailbacks build up in one direction with nothing the other way.

I've given up reporting it - typical response at a weekend is "we'll get someone to look at it on Monday."

If the utility companies were charged £1,000 per hour for blocking the road I'm sure they would find a better way of doing it. As it is they pay no price for the disruption they cause so have no reason to improve.

[Rusty Old-Banger]

Local authority highway officer here.

Utility companies are nearly always given conditions from the LA/highway authority before they can close/restrict a road - things like no noisy works after 11pm, or the requirement to have people on site whenever the traffic management is out. However, this is generally only for scheduled works, or non-emergency works required by others (say in advance of a highways widening scheme).

For emergency works (your definition of emergency works may vary from theirs!) then they have a statutory right to install TM and work on the highway under NRSWA, which means they can do pretty much whatever they like, as long as they can defend it being "emergency works". This is usually a burst main, broken pipe, damaged cable etc - something that denies service to residents or businesses. It's down to the utility company as to how many people they put on it. The gas company near me have a current policy of weekday, daytime works only - so they can put TM on, come out and make safe overnight, but the repair will be mon-fri daytimes, which can cause havoc on the roads. Frustrating, but it's their legal right.

[Boxster5]

The work is being carried out by National Gas Networks and it looks like it is in response to a gas leak (although no one on site today).
My point is why do they need 3 way traffic control for something that doesn’t affect the “main” road? There is space (refuge) for traffic on the other side of the actual roadworks without any traffic backing up onto the main road. This is a very quiet road that probably sees no more than 100 cars per day perhaps.