Sunday Morning Rant...

My Sunday morning walk took me past the road works on Killingworth Road in Newcastle today. And it got me cross (what a grumpy old man I am!).

Last July this road, which is a main commuter route into central Newcastle, was closed - "until February 2018". This was for two pieces of work. The first was the replacement of the Metro railway bridge - which was completed, on time, 6 weeks later which was very impressive. I was proud then of our local workmen.

The second reason was to widen that piece of road - about 200 yards in total. As February approached, the closure signs subtly changed to "until Spring 2018"; recently they've changed to "until June 2018".

Excuses for the delay include the unexpected need to re-route a gas main and a water main. But surely that can't take an extra 4 months!

Pride has now turned to shame - I have to say that it now makes me ashamed of the British. Having recently seen the amazing repair works being done to New Zealand roads following the severe earthquake damage, I feel that this local work should have been possible to complete very quickly. It doesn't seem to have changed a great deal since I last posted a blip from the area last September!

It's only of mild inconvenience to me as I very rarely have to drive in the rush hour (lucky me) - although it does result in a lot more traffic along the main road near our house. But the hidden cost to industry, resulting from delays in business traffic from the road closure, must be very considerable.

Rant over! Apart from this, I enjoyed my walk on a lovely spring morning.

(PS The Metro bridge isn't really a hump-back bridge - I used my fisheye lens again.)