Road works at night in a residential area

Fact: According to the World Health Organisation – environmental noise from road traffic, railways, airports and other sources, such as construction sites/road works leads to a disease burden that is now second in magnitude only to that from air pollution.

One in every five people have disturbed sleep at night; however, one in every three people experiences annoyance during the daytime because of environmental noise.

Noise from machinery, drilling, demolition work and other kinds of activity on construction sites is very distressing for people who live nearby. Local councils can regulate noise from construction sites, both in advance of construction starting, and after a complaint. For example, if a builder applies for consent, the council can set conditions to control noise. If the builder does not apply for consent, but it appears to the local council that construction is about to start, they can serve a noise control notice. After a complaint, council officers measure the noise coming from the site before deciding whether to impose conditions on how further construction work should be carried out. The council would consider whether the contractor has applied the “best practical means” to reduce or control the noise. If the noise continues and any conditions set by the council are broken, fines can be up to £20,000 for each offence in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland fines for offences on industrial, trade or business premises can go up to £40,000. (see Noise and Nuisance – What Type of Noise? http://www.environmentlaw.org.uk/rte.asp?id=70)

JustThinking said :

Have you ever tried to maintain traffic on a main road/intersection in ACT during business hours?
Not only is it alot easier in the wee hours of Sunday night (Monday morning) but alot safer for those working on the road.

Wait till you have some lady in 4WD crash through a barrier , while on her mobile phone, then tell you she didn’t see any of the 42 signs or the big flashing lights stating “road works ahead-slow down”
Or the people who actually run into the traffic controllers because they are “in a hurry and late for XYZ”

People want better roads but no matter when the work is done (at night or of a day) someone will always complain about the wait, the noise, the detours etc.

Bit of a thread mining effort, but I just read this post and really really wanted to agree with it. No matter when you close a road, you’re always inconveniencing someone. And invariably that someone will claim that you should have done it another time and inconvenienced someone else less important.

Some blokes I work with did a rail overbridge some years ago in sydney. They had a 48 hour track posession of a weekend with which to drop in the precast beams and a bunch of structural steel. They spent all of saturday afternoon and evening being heckled by the residents of local flats sitting out on their balconies sinking piss who seemed to know exactly how the job could be done better. Come 3 in the morning it was time to tension the hold down bolts. Out come the rattle guns. The lads reckon it could be heard 3km away and the list of public complaints was record breaking. Job got done on time though!

No matter what you do, work fast, work slow, work upside down underwater, the public will ALWAYS find something to complain about.

Have you ever tried to maintain traffic on a main road/intersection in ACT during business hours?
Not only is it alot easier in the wee hours of Sunday night (Monday morning) but alot safer for those working on the road.

Wait till you have some lady in 4WD crash through a barrier , while on her mobile phone, then tell you she didn’t see any of the 42 signs or the big flashing lights stating “road works ahead-slow down”
Or the people who actually run into the traffic controllers because they are “in a hurry and late for XYZ”

People want better roads but no matter when the work is done (at night or of a day) someone will always complain about the wait, the noise, the detours etc.

harvyk1 said :

D2 said :

I’d be pissed off it was happening outside my window. I thought there were regulations governing the hours when noisy work could be carried out.

Unfortuantley no, given it is classed as a “major road” they are allowed to do what they like when they like.

I got a call back this morning which basically paraphases to “We’re the gov’t, we can do what we want, so screw you…”

So, whe is it going to be done?

Do people in Lanyon have such a short memory?

Remember the duplication? Fark me some winging went on there…….

Troll sniffer has a point.

While I do feel for the OP, the re surfacing will be over in a week. Do what I do when I go camping with my pisshead mates, buy some ear plugs. Works a treat.

D2 said :

I’d be pissed off it was happening outside my window. I thought there were regulations governing the hours when noisy work could be carried out.

Unfortuantley no, given it is classed as a “major road” they are allowed to do what they like when they like.

I got a call back this morning which basically paraphases to “We’re the gov’t, we can do what we want, so screw you…”

Ceej1973 said :

I think you will find it was scheduled at this time and date so as to not interupt ACTION bus services in Lanyon Valley. All the routes run down Tharwa Drive at the beginning of the trip, so as there is no other southern access to Gordon, and the only other access to lower Conder and Banks is at the intersection that is being re-surfaced, they could not do a detour. Mind you, this would have not been an issue to re-surface durring business/ACTION hours if ACTION had of taken my advise the last two surveys.Re-designing the routes, thus providing a service to several thousand additional Valley residents, so we dont have to walk over 1km to the nearest bus, I like others may just catch the bus instead of driving and chewing up the bitumen in my WRX.

Come on Ceej, a 1km work doesn’t hurt anyone! When I were growing up, I would have given my right finger to only have to walk 1 km to school, rather than having to negotiate the crocodile estuaries of the NT as me and the local kids walked 15km each way, up the escarpment, to the tin roofed shack that passed for a school, to spend all day under the withering gaze of the sole teacher who graduated from the SS in 1944. No laddie, you young ‘uns don’t know how lucky you’ve got it. A 1 km walk takes all of 10 minutes. Sounds like an excuse seeking validation to me.

I’d be pissed off it was happening outside my window. I thought there were regulations governing the hours when noisy work could be carried out.

I think you will find it was scheduled at this time and date so as to not interupt ACTION bus services in Lanyon Valley. All the routes run down Tharwa Drive at the beginning of the trip, so as there is no other southern access to Gordon, and the only other access to lower Conder and Banks is at the intersection that is being re-surfaced, they could not do a detour. Mind you, this would have not been an issue to re-surface durring business/ACTION hours if ACTION had of taken my advise the last two surveys.Re-designing the routes, thus providing a service to several thousand additional Valley residents, so we dont have to walk over 1km to the nearest bus, I like others may just catch the bus instead of driving and chewing up the bitumen in my WRX.

I feel your pain harvyk1. My family recently weathered a 3 night Summernats pool party from a house near by, they played such games as “who knows the words to this song, lets all sing”, biggest splash competition, and “4 letter words are my favorite” all of course whilst the parents were away. I called the cops on the 3rd night as I needed sleep. Suffice it to say I would of happily swapped one night of roadworks for a 3 night ignorant adolescent party… I was so close to plugging a toaster into an extension cord and lobbing it into the pool…

My bet is Troll-sniffer is happy that his troll sniffing on this thread has resulted in some truffles!