Well actually they’re not ace at all, they’re a severe irritant. I say this because I’ve been clocked by one doing 39 in a 30mph zone. The thing about this road (Blackley New Road) is that it doesn’t have permanent speed cameras on. But it does, every now and then, have a camera in a van.

So why do they have a van on a quiet road mid morning on a Monday?

Because the people who are running the cameras know that Blackley New Road goes downhill, it’s a nice wide road and it’s incredibly difficult to keep the speed at 30 without dropping into 3rd and wasting petrol and destroying the ozone layer more rapidly.

So it becomes a trade-off between being green or going green in the face because you’ve got a speeding fine.

And just when you thought that was it on the speed camera front, I noticed that the M60 (junction 19) near the Three Arrows pub and the Middleton turn-off has average speed cameras installed (not in use this morning).

I’m hopeful that they’re only there for the roadworks that seem to afflict the M60 and will be removed when they’re finished. I’ll let you know. If anyone else had any news about it let us know too.

And lastly the average speed cameras placed strategically along Victoria Avenue appear to have been playing up and not coining the revenue in for the “Greater Manchester Casualty Reduction Partnership.” I noticed the workmen digging bits of pavement up around the camera gantry near St. Clare’s church earlier in the week. Although it looks as though work is finished and money can start spilling into council coffers.

Interestingly Swindon took all their cameras out and found there was no change in the number of accidents.

Well here we are once again, another hole in the road.

Over the weekend a few bollards were artfully displayed along one of the lanes on Middleton Road leading away from Manchester and towards the M60.

Today the bollards have arrived in force and it looks as though they’re opening another hole in the road next to the one that was there on the opposite carriageway.

Hmm.

The result is that for people going through the roadworks there is one lane out of Manchester.

At the moment the traffic is backing up towards the petrol station near The Heaton Park hotel. So not too bad.

However, this isn’t rush hour yet!

My advice?

Steer well clear it’s going to be very, very bad.

Other Middleton Road Carriageway Affected Too

Oh, and for tomorrow, just to let you know.  When you come in to Manchester you may still have a pr0blem.

Currently one lane on the other carriageway is also blocked as they’ve put a lorry there to take the soil from the digger.

Looks like they’ve waited for Easter holidays before unleashing this potential mayhem!

del.icio.us Tags: traffic problems,M60 motorway,Middleton Road hole

Technorati Tags: traffic problems,M60 motorway,Middleton Road hole

IceRocket Tags: traffic problems,M60 motorway,Middleton Road hole

After the farce of a vast array of bollards preventing happy shoppers vacating Sainsbury’s on Saturday they’re back!

As I reported before the leak is still on Middleton Road. So two diggers have been sent in to dig a hole to find where the leak is. I’m just hoping they don’t go straight through one of the 3 mains water pipes under the road and cause absolute chaos, confusion and flooded gardens again.

There’s some traffic buildup behind the one lane of traffic cones and I’m quite sure that come the rush hour tomorrow there will be plenty of gnashing of teeth as people queue up on the M60 motorway to queue up to go round the roundabout as they queue up to go into Manchester.

Don’t say you’ve not been warned!

In the meantime, things appear to have gone quiet outside so I suspect they’ve dug as far as they can with the pneumatic drill and are now shovelling the earth out with the mini digger. All great fun…

I’ll let you know when the hole gets filled in and the bollards removed, and whether it actually resolves the problem too.

In the meantime, happy alternative route searching.