..........Given the state of the UK's roads; the unsatisfactory standard of our infrastructure; the even more sub-standard utilities infrastructure and plant, some of which is so old, it should be consigned to the Ark; it seems to me that it impossible for all those people responsible to get their act together and get the work done and replace what needs replacing or upgrading........... .......after all, it was all done from new, successfully, years ago when there was less money and personnel available; and it worked; so why can it not be done now? The argument of cost to remove old and replace with new is a red herring.........to dig up a road or a cable is roughly the same as it was (proportionally in comparison to the cost then) to dig a new trench or build a road --- in fact in may instances it is a lower cost; plus to replace plant isn't a matter of guesswork like it used to be, it is a simple matter of removing an obsolete item and replacing it with a known upgrade / newer item.
If it was that simple, why isn't it being done? I can't believe any authority would deliberately leave the roads in their current state if the funds and other resources to sort them out were available.
As we spend more and more on welfare we have less and less to spend on infrastructure. Furthermore much of the "investment" that was made during previous governments was infact "spending" that we now have little to show for other than debt. The concept that you can tax and spend your way to prosperity has brought us to where we are today.
Actually you are totally wrong years ago you didn't have to traffic manage every road like you do now so cost of works were lots cheaper as I do road markings you would be surprised on how much is spent on health and safety and traffic management , sometimes we may do a £1000 work for the day but tm will cost £2000 also nothing is run by the local authority anymore it's always a contractor like amey or Atkins and by the time they take there management fees from the budget there is very little left to be spent where it was intended , worked fit a contractor on the motorway network he kept saying less is more , less spent on the road more for them until it all goes back in house and run by the local authority the money will continue to be wasted this way
It is being done im working on a bridge deck replacement at the moment. The HA have been given a substantial budget to spend on infrastructure upgrades and replacements over the next 5 years. As for local authorities, it took south glos highways 8 weeks to put in a new 100m footpath near me, a decent contractor would have done it in a week...
Point I was trying to make was we used to sub contract direct to the council so,we could build your footpath in a week now we sometimes wait 6 months to get the order from the like of amey after when the client (council) requested the work , if we got order direct we could start work right away and no middle man taking large slice of the pie
See what I mean? No digs at the other posters, but the people 'at the top'......... "it seems to me that it impossible for all those people responsible to get their act together and get the work done and replace what needs replacing or upgrading..........."
I would be surprised if anyone on here would agree that the state of the roads in their home county were fit for purpose.
Years ago we just used to get on with the job in hand, but these days we have to pay people more money to shuffle the paperwork, enforce all the rules and regulations and generally fuck about than we do to actually do the job in question. That's why it ends up costing three times as much and there's no money left!. And it's the same for everything, that's why the country is crumbling!
It is not just about efficiencies it is to do with the fact that the UK government continues to spend £2,000,000,000 a week more than it has coming in.
It is interesting, isn't it? The current mantra that private contractors can do everything (EVERYTHING - that is running hospitals, prisons, building roads, thinking, planning - EVERYTHING) more efficiently than the public sector seems to brook no debate. What this must mean, is that even though all these companies do the work for cost plus profit (quite a lot of that...) they are cheaper than the public sector. So what does that tell you about the pointless, bloated way the public sector works? The proper answer, it seems to me, is to streamline the public sector, and employ the same supposedly efficient management practices that are in place in the private sector. Then you'd be cheaper to do all these things, as you wouldn't have to pay for the private sector profits. To just hand everything over to the private sector seems to me to be both defeatist, lame, inefficient and complacent.
I think it is a truism, although there are no doubt some exceptions. The first objective in the public sector seems to be the needs of the organisation, whereas in the private sector it should be the customer but increasingly it is the senior management.
A couple of years back there was a council leader (can't remember where) who wanted to leave the potholes everywhere cos it slowed the traffic down. I blame Health and Safety. That's where all the money is going.
I work for a private sector contractor on motorway infrastructure upgrades, motorways have always been built, maintained and have sections replaced when neccessary by the private sector as the HA has no construction ability. I agree that in the public interest it would be better to have streamlined local authorities performing the work on the roads, the problem is that local authorities in themselves are bloated, wasteful entities that need to be completely rebuilt from the ground up before this can happen. At this present time a private contractor such as Amey, Carillion, Balfour Beatty or Atkins are a much more efficient option. As for the "in the good old days we just got on with it" arguement, this bridge i am working on is absolutely f*cked, it was built in a hurry using inadequate materials because they "just got on with it". the entire motorway network is riddled with structures that are desperately needing repairs/replacement because in the good old days they "just got on with it"
You misunderstood the 'just get on with it' , atilla. I don't think anyone was talking about the quality of workmanship, I rather suspect it was suggesting less talking, more doing.
I know what was meant mate, my point was that just getting on with it isn't always the answer especially in the case of projects like mine whre there are tens of thousands of vehicles travelling over it every day. There is definately a layer of beurocracy that needs to be stripped out though, the hoops we have to jump through to get project approvals are rediculous.
The point is there are a lot of people out there that have nonsense jobs that have been created by the government to reduce the unemployment figures but just add to the work load and expense of projects. It's not just the roads it's everything whether it be in the public or private sector, people creating red tape to justify and protect their existence. The problem is there isn't enough money to complete the project because a big percentage is is being wasted on bullshit.
What a load of rubbish. My friend works in the Office of National Statistics ('just get on with it versus health and safety' section), and he assures me that his team of twenty analysts are at least 99% efficient in producing their reports that show the people who are trying to repair the roads are much less efficient (c70%). Clearly, there is a huge cost associated with this inefficiency, which must be addressed. Surely, any right thinking person can see the added value in the analysis and reporting that has highlighted this appalling waste.
i think on the whole the roads in argyll,lochaber and highlands aint to bad. but theirs a lot of fast roads so when you do hit something its gonna hurt.
