Jimmy's Thoughts

Well, what a popular one this'll be...

I work for a company as one of their "field service technicians", meaning I get a van and drive to our customers to resolve issues they're having with something we sold / installed for them. This can range from a small pub sound system, through office meeting room conference systems, churches (old and new) and onto large public address and voice alarm systems in stadiums and the like.

I've been driving quite a bit more recently now the service team is settling into it's stride and the sales folks are actually passing support requests onto the right team, and I've noticed something interesting.

Over the past 15-20 years the motorway system has been moving from having grass and a "disposable" metal barrier in the middle to a more solid concrete barrier. This makes it much harder to cross to the opposing carriageway and cause even more damage should you lose control of your vehicle.

All well and good you might think, but with no grass / assorted small trees or rain absorbing mud there it's just a big concrete drain, which is fine when it's been freshly built as no rubbish has collected there, and the rain can freely be carried away for later dumping in the nearest water course (or however it's actually done).

But, after a few months or years, dust, grime, seeds, stuff off badly loaded vehicles and litter strewn from idiot drivers eventually drifts into these gutters.

I know we think of it raining a lot in the UK, but it's not a consistent deluge or even general trickle, so this muck dries out, collects and the gathers seeds from local vegetation which, finding good fertile stuff unsurprisingly starts to grow.

As it grows it disturbs the natural air movement causing more debris to gather in that spot and on the pile grows. I have noticed it does this in one of two places. Either in the middle of a gutter, which can be problematic as it then stops waste water flowing to the nearest grate, or, as is often the case, blocking up the grate meaning water no longer flows anywhere.

This really becomes a problem when a sudden large amount of water is thrust upon the ground. It has no where to run away to, so starts to generate lovely large puddles which in the worse areas then starts covering the road way making it dangerous to drive at speed. Because of this they then start closing lanes, and traffic builds up.

But, wasn't this supposed to make the roads safer? Sure, but some rudimentary maintenance needs to be done to keep these gutters clear. So we look to have swapped closing lanes overnight to cut the grass back, to closing lanes during the day when it gets more than a bit damp, normally when it's busy causing traffic to back up.

So, that's a good whinge I hear you mutter, but do I have an answer? Aye, aye I do.

We longer have a team of folks blocking off the outer (fast) lane over night a couple of times a year to cut the grass, so we'll have to give them shovels instead and start the hard work of getting the large piles of debris up and clearing the drains. But we can then follow that up with a couple of street sweeper machines to gather up the smaller debris a couple of times a year. With smart motorways they can close off the outer lane for a set distance and have the sweepers run along infront of one of those lovely big highways agency lorries with the massive bumper on the back.

This is then a rolling road closure, the traffic cone folks are safer, the gutters stay clear (a surprising number of ex truck tyres litter the central reservation) and traffic has a better chance of keeping moving.