Anger, frustration, irritation, foreboding – some of the emotions greeting the news that the fourth instalment of Blake Hell Road is being planned for up to 20 weeks starting in June.
Residents have been told by National Grid that the work to replace metal gas mains with plastic pipes will start on 20 June.
The roadworks for the previous two bouts of work – over Christmas and summer last year – have meant temporary lights and looong delays in both direction.
People are not happy…
https://twitter.com/ahgreenie/status/720344085937197056
20 (TWENTY) weeks of work on #BlakeHellRoad. Please plan it well this time @nationalgriduk, my nerves can't do a summer 2015 all over again
— Jane Clapton (@janeclapton) April 13, 2016
@wanstead_meteo new notice on #BlakeHellRoad today – Part 4 starts on 20th June for 20 weeks!!!!
— Avril York (@Threadtangle) April 13, 2016
You have to be kidding me? It was hell last time with only 2 workmen on 11-3 most days. Can’t they have a crew working overnight? A tortuous Summer ahead then…
You could just go without gas? First world problems eh…
Also… I hope that photo that looks like it was taken from inside a car was not done whilst driving!
Hmm… using a mobile phone while (allegedly) driving . First world problems… eh?
Nicely put Jess, I’m also not quite over the hadron collider of chaos they created last time round.
For most of those three months (!) the “works” consisted of a never-ending episode of the Wacky Races featuring East London’s least responsible drivers running red lights and blocking what remained of the carriageway whilst two blokes in donkey jackets enjoyed a tea break. Contacting these today:
wecare@nationalgrid.com
john.cryer.mp@parliament.uk
Noooooooooooooooooo! 😈😈😈😈😈
It would be good if people who normally have to use this route for their journeys could try to spread out into alternative routes to just avoid Bleak Hell Road altogether. But even during last year’s works, it seemed like the whole world still insisted on joining the queues throughout the long weeks of repairs. I should know, I live on it and have to enjoy the increased fumes of all the lovely idling engines forming a car park . . .
Correct. It would alleviated by the people using it as a through route finding another way and people using it for shorter routes switching to walking or cycling. I would imagine a fair few are under 2 miles and enough are able bodied enough for some of the car trips not be taken.
Hi Mark
Hopefully the early use of signage might deter some of the through traffic … unfortunately a lot of East London seems to use BHR to get between Ilford/Forest Gate/Stratford/lower Leytonstone and the A12/A406/Walthamstow and Woodford.
Last summer’s experience was pretty horrendous, mostly due to the lackadaisical attempt at traffic management, the poor behaviour of drivers, and the slow pace of progress of the works themselves. That was a three-month interruption, and this time they are threatening even longer.
Traffic was simply stacked on BHR from first light until midnight, meaning that most Aldersbrook residents had to divert via the A406 at Ilford for all inward and outward car journeys. The noise of people angrily honking and the exhaust fumes etc were all part of the experience. Buses became more or less unusable most of the time.
We did manage to do a lot of the school run type journeys by bike, but there were inevitably days when 5 year old legs were too tired to pedal up to Wanstead, or the rain was too hard. Delivery companies stopped coming to Aldersbrook and the milkman began to murmur threats about quitting. The Christ Church Brownie Pack was shut down for half a term, because Brown Owl and others couldn’t negotiate the traffic.
I’d urge residents to contact National Grid, Redbridge and John Cryer to make sure that all reasonable measures are taken to ensure this work gets carried out more efficiently and quickly than in 2015.
5 more months of chaos of National Grid sub – contracted work. Adding all the bits together people living and working in this area will have been subjected to nearly a year’s worth of depressing mismanagement of this work and total disruption of their lives. Access to a detailed work plan and traffic management plan should be given to all residents living either side of Blake Hall Road with sufficient time for comment before commencement.
Not as bad but very annoying that Hermon Hill has road works again this week so far not seen anyone doing any work except out up the temporary lights. Every month there is another reason to add temporary lights its just crazy.
Looks like it may be time to get my bike out of storage!
It may be an idea for the local schools to send a message/warning to parents.
bloody great
Sembles Robinson nnnnnoooooooooo
I know – we saw this last night and were praying it was only a joke 😡
It’s really important that people request assurances about the issues we faced last year. Email Redbridge Council, National Grid and John Cryer. Got to be done – and best do it now, before the works starts.