Gracechurch Street City Of London, nightmare.

[spindrift]

The whole of London's having the sewers replaced, Soho was being done last month so the man in The Green Man, Berwick Street said he couldn't serve me a pint of water as it was cloudy so I had to drink beer. I remained calm and carried on.

Now, it's The City. Two lanes of traffic now become one on the main artery in The City, it's pretty grim, vans and buses jostle for position and peds blunder through gaps in the slow moving traffic whilst munching Danishs and listening to Ipods. It's really dodgy, no bugger indicates, motorbikes zip through gaps, it took ten minutes to travel a few hundred yards. The biggest danger in urban areas are peds, I feel sometimes.

 

[Wolf04]

They are probably all drunk, what with being forced to drink beer and all!
:-)

 

[mr_cellophane]

It is the water mains that are being replaced. I would hate to think the water was cloudy because they were replacing the sewers.

 

[spindrift]

It is the water mains that are being replaced. I would hate to think the water was cloudy because they were replacing the sewers.

Maybe he just wanted to encourage me to drink beer, curse him!

 

[Notsoblue]

Its never particularly fast moving around there though to be fair. Personally I hate the area, had a nasty collision with a ped near the large pedestrianised bit between Cannon Street and St Pauls last year. Ended up being fined a grand!

 

[jely]

really? i had a great run down gracechurch street this morning... there wasn't much traffic and no blundering peds. maybe i was just going so fast i left them all behind... oh yeah, that was it ... hahaha

gee, tough work on the beer mate ... hope you're ok!

 

[spindrift]

Did you notice the road dug up, just west of Liverpool Street/

It was there at 07.30 this morning, they've set a world record for filling holes in if it's gawn!

 

[fossyant]

It's not just London - Manchester is having Gas and Water Mains replaced at the moment - including the suburbs - absolute mess everywhere.

 

[jely]

Did you notice the road dug up, just west of Liverpool Street/

It was there at 07.30 this morning, they've set a world record for filling holes in if it's gawn!

nope, but then i turn off down london wall so don't go all the way to liverpool st... and also i'm a couple of hours later than you .... or maybe they just wanted to shock everyone and get a job finished quickly for a change!

 

[zimzum42]

The UK should take a leaf out of Singapore's book.

Loads of roadworks here, but no delays.

That's because all the works are done at night, and when they finish in the small hours, they cover the holes in the road with massive metal plates and the road is full open for the morning rush hour.

In the evening the plates are lifted and the works continue, the same eacch night until the works are finished.

Not like the UK where they dig a hole, leave it for a few weeks surrounded by cones, then a bunch of Irish pensioners turn up and loiter around for a few weeks while doing not much, before they finally fill in the hole, shoddily top it off, and then come back a week later to dig it all up again for the next utility.....

 

[spindrift]

Gone this morning. Maybe it was a phantom road digger like the shop in Mr Benn?

 

[snorri]

Not like the UK where they dig a hole, leave it for a few weeks surrounded by cones

Real expat talk that zimzum, bears a vague resemblance to the situation 40 years ago, but raises a laugh in the club.

 

[spindrift]

In fairness, there are some utter muppet cyclists out there. Gracechurch Street is having the sewers replaced so two lanes become one. It's my most hatey scenario, lanes of traffic moving slowly so peds dart across and muppet cyclists filter on the left, then swing sideways between cars to filter on the right. the one who did this was then follwed by me over London Bridge where he slowed by hooking his foot behind him and rubbing his instep on his rear wheel.


Peds do that stare-ahead thing and kind of quick-step as if they are moving to get out of the way, but aren't. Even. I don't like using the Airzound cos it's aggressive and peds fly in the air like startled kittens.

 

[zimzum42]

Seriously though, when i worked in Osterley, and this is only one and a half years ago, they did just this, coned off a lane at Gillette corner, dug a hole, then left it untouched for a fortnight, then filled it in one day.

They didn't even cone it off in a good way, they snarled the traffic up for ages when they could have made it much simpler