.... so the resurfacing works are pretty much done. new surface laid, and in less than a year, not bad for Streetfarse.

BUT... the Parkway still has lane restrictions, still as disrupted as ever. So as I'm sat in the car on the parkway for half an hour this morning I start looking around thinking "What are they still up to?"... and then I notice:

They're Block Paving the central reservation!!!!!!

Now, this is nothing new. They wasted £££££ block paving the section down to the parksquare round-a-bout. But after wasting all that money the first time around, who thought it would be a good idea to do it again?

But forgetting the money aspect, we now have to put up with the disruptions on this major way in / way out of Sheffield for god knows how long while they block pave the central reservation.

Why not just stick some tarmac in the centre? The work would be finished now, and surely it would be much much cheaper!

who sits in their car and thinks "Ooo, that's a nice block paved central reservation, what well spent time and money" ?????

JOKE! :huh:

Off the top of my head I would guess costs of things like this are marginal compared to the whole project. So while they're about it why not Sheffield's main intake road look as nice as possible for visitors and residents alike instead of patching it up on the cheap?

i would guess that the cost of block paving compared to tarmac would be massively higher, plus the added time it takes.

they could have had the parkway back to normal by now.

its still only 2 lanes though, what a joke the parkway is, any city worth its salt has a 3 lane motorway straight into the city centre

But forgetting the money aspect, we now have to put up with the disruptions on this major way in / way out of Sheffield for god knows how long while they block pave the central reservation.

If you opened your eyes further you would find that there are other things still being done - There is still a surfacing layer to go in accross the full width of the road, barriers being erected, signs to be replaced, kerbs to be put back in... 24hr working would have been nice and got the job done quicker, but sadly, the public wants as many lanes open as possible at peak periods, there are also houses fronting onto the parkway that would complain about noise if the contractors were working through the night...

The central reserve was removed to allow traffic to be moved around the available space and to minimise the times when lanes needed to be taken out... the new central reserve is being put back so that a barrier can be replaced - the material going back is actually imprinted concrete.

You will note that the sockets for the barier are being put back at the same time - thus eliminating the need to get a coring machine back in to core out new tarmac to put the sockets in after the tarmac is laid - I'm not aware of the actual costs, but I suspect the cost of using imprinted concrete and putting the sockets in at the same time, would be the same (or perhaps cheaper) than hiring a coring machine afterwards.

And yes, I'd love to stick a third lane down the parkway, but if you care to search on old threads, you might find my post on how much it would cost - IIRC i estimated about £375M !!!!

Last week I went down Prince of Wales road to go to Rotherham and found I couldn't get onto the A630 sliproad. I ended up going back to the Prince of Wales roundabout, then southbound to the next junction, turned round and went back up the other side, which is where i wanted to be to start off with.
This morning I went down Prince of Wales road again and there are still no notices saying the slip road to the A630 is closed. It would really have helped if there had been notices on Prince of Wales road explaining the slip road was closed.
Is it too much to ask that streetforce could put signs up.

I find the truly best way to get around this problem is to pretend the parkway doesn't exist. When you're next driving down there, or before you even set off would be better - just assume the parkway isn't there and it's a river or something that you have to cross... ;)

This morning I went down Prince of Wales road again and there are still no notices saying the slip road to the A630 is closed. It would really have helped if there had been notices on Prince of Wales road explaining the slip road was closed.
Is it too much to ask that streetforce could put signs up.

The slip to the A630 is now open... I've used it the last few days...

The Parkway has just fallen apart since I sold it. A massive shame.

by the time its taken they could have block paved all four lanes

i would guess that the cost of block paving compared to tarmac would be massively higher, plus the added time it takes.

they could have had the parkway back to normal by now.

The cost of block paving is higher than tarmac, but this is normall practice as its easier and quicker to repair when the utilities need upgrading or simply repairing.
Also its a rigid construction and not a flexible one as tarmac so therefore if its also housing the supports for the central reservation it all adds up to a stronger construction in the event of an accident.

Last week I went down Prince of Wales road to go to Rotherham and found I couldn't get onto the A630 sliproad. I ended up going back to the Prince of Wales roundabout, then southbound to the next junction, turned round and went back up the other side, which is where i wanted to be to start off with.
This morning I went down Prince of Wales road again and there are still no notices saying the slip road to the A630 is closed. It would really have helped if there had been notices on Prince of Wales road explaining the slip road was closed.
Is it too much to ask that streetforce could put signs up.

The slip road is now open it just doesn't look like it is. I used it last week and this morning and its definatley open!

And yes, I'd love to stick a third lane down the parkway, but if you care to search on old threads, you might find my post on how much it would cost - IIRC i estimated about £375M !!!!

is that really a large amount compared to the amount of business the city would get, no doubt potential investors are put off by the bottleneck and the fact it takes hours to get in or out of the city during peak periods

its still only 2 lanes though, what a joke the parkway is, any city worth its salt has a 3 lane motorway straight into the city centre

Remind me of any 3 lane motorways that go into the centre of London.

well thats slightly different, london doesn't need as many good reasons as sheffield for companys to invest down there does it?

well thats slightly different, london doesn't need as many good reasons as sheffield for companys to invest down there does it?

And where are the three lane motorways into the centre of Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Bristol, Leicester, Birmingham, Liverpool etc?

Cities with motorways into the centre (or even a dual carriageway "clearway" from the motorway like the Parkway) are the exception rather than the rule.

I think its actually inprinted concrete and not block paving.

thanks for letting me know the slip road is open, after last week hadn't dare try it

I think its actually inprinted concrete and not block paving.
It is indeed.

And where are the three lane motorways into the centre of Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Bristol, Leicester, Birmingham, Liverpool etc?

Cities with motorways into the centre (or even a dual carriageway "clearway" from the motorway like the Parkway) are the exception rather than the rule.

Leeds - M621
Manchester - M602
Bristol - M32
Birmingham - Aston Expressway

is that really a large amount compared to the amount of business the city would get, no doubt potential investors are put off by the bottleneck and the fact it takes hours to get in or out of the city during peak periods

Send me a cheque and I'll get oin with the drawings ! :¬)

Remind me of any 3 lane motorways that go into the centre of London.

The Westway (A40)

Well for once the workmen were actually working today when i crawled past the smiley speed camera - nobody there when I drove by in the morning though.

I would have though they would have people working 6am - 9pm to get the damn works finished before the city centre shopping dies completely

I would have though they would have people working 6am - 9pm to get the damn works finished before the city centre shopping dies completely

Firstly, I'm sure if you lived next to the Sheffield Parkway, you would be fuming if a pnuematic drill was going 6am, till 9pm,

Second, a little bit of law restricts the maximum number of hours a person can work - typically this works out at 6x 8hr days... so you would require twice the staff to do the job and finding people with the right skills for building roads isn't that easy !

Last... with all the cranes and building work going off in the city, it's hardly suffering as a result of the work to maintain the carriageway - something many people would like to see done on all Sheffields roads !

It's not quite the Parkway, but what was the point of removing the handy filter lane which took you round onto the Parkway from Park Square roundabout which relieved congestion if you were driving onto the roundabout with the markets on your right and Victoria Quays on your left?

It was a road which met a need and was useful. Now it's doing nothing.

It's not quite the Parkway, but what was the point of removing the handy filter lane which took you round onto the Parkway from Park Square roundabout which relieved congestion if you were driving onto the roundabout with the markets on your right and Victoria Quays on your left?

It was a road which met a need and was useful. Now it's doing nothing.

They wanted us to have to get stuck at more traffic lights! :loopy:

It's not quite the Parkway, but what was the point of removing the handy filter lane which took you round onto the Parkway from Park Square roundabout which relieved congestion if you were driving onto the roundabout with the markets on your right and Victoria Quays on your left?

It was a road which met a need and was useful. Now it's doing nothing.

I believe it was removed because it directly contravened section 2.3.1 of the Sheffield City Council Traffic Management plan which states:

Commuters within the Sheffield City Centre shall not drive more than 200metres without encountering one of the following; speed bump, traffic lights or round-a-bout.

Did Sheffield Council get a special discount for buying 20,000 traffic lights in one go?

and is this why they cant afford more than 3 workmen to be actually working on Whicker/Parkway at the same time? perhaps the roadworkers cant get to work due to the zillions of traffic lights and narrowed roads on all approaches to the city centre?? before it's time to go home again

is this why it's going to take until 2020 to finish it all?. One whizzened bearded 105 year old man, the only workman not retired, sat in the middle of the Parkway hand-carving paving stones, while there are skeletons sat in cars waiting to get into town, and a traffic Jam going back as far as the channel tunnell....and somewhere into Eastern Europe

It's not quite the Parkway, but what was the point of removing the handy filter lane which took you round onto the Parkway from Park Square roundabout which relieved congestion if you were driving onto the roundabout with the markets on your right and Victoria Quays on your left?

It was a road which met a need and was useful. Now it's doing nothing.
As far as I am aware,
Because that road you are driving on is about to be downgraded and you will not go into the parkway in a few week's time.
Instead you will go by the new ring road section..

Remind me of any 3 lane motorways that go into the centre of London.

Who says London is a city worth it's salt? Just some foreign southern town. :D

Anyway, why not make the central reservation look pretty. More pleasant to sit on for an hour the next time a bicycle with a puncture causes city gridlock

is this why it's going to take until 2020 to finish it all?. One whizzened bearded 105 year old man, the only workman not retired, sat in the middle of the Parkway hand-carving paving stones, while there are skeletons sat in cars waiting to get into town, and a traffic Jam going back as far as the channel tunnell....and somewhere into Eastern Europe

no no no bonny lad... the bloke with the beard is actually only 87 and the traffic jam only goes as far as the M20 ! :D

Guess what - workmen were actually there when I drove past at 7:30 this morning. 1 driving a digger and 6 others watching him.

Well done street farce!

Can we get onto the Parkway from Prince of Wales rd and leave the Parkway at the same place yet?

I still go through Darnell rather than take my binoculars and try to see what the signs say before it's too late... and I'm fed up of trying the routes to then have to do a figure of 8 twice, once upside down to be able to continue my journey the way I intended to travel in the first place!! :hihi: :loopy: