Banner
any day today rss X

News and Comment March 2014

Index: 2009201020112012201320142015201620172018201920202021202220232024

22 March - The Welling time warp

A contractor working in Sidcup has dug up a time capsule from 1846 but I decided to visit one closer to home today. It’s in the centre of Welling and anyone can see it at any time. Here’s a few photos to show you what is going on there.

Welling Corner Welling Corner Welling Corner Welling Corner

Chaotic as you can see but I am not being entirely honest with you, the photos above were taken ten months ago; today’s are below…

Welling Corner Welling Corner Welling Corner Welling Corner

How can a simple job go on for a whole year? I suppose Sidcup residents will know, they’ve seen how their High Street can be closed and nothing happen over two months.

A few more photos will show that the disruption is for pedestrians and drivers alike.

Welling Corner Welling Corner Welling Corner Welling Corner

Surely a year to get not very close to finishing the job can only be due to mismanagement? And what will be achieved at the end of it all?

I’m not very familiar with the history of Welling Corner so I asked a reader who lives nearby if he had anything he’d like to say…


Marble benchesThe roadworks at Welling Corner are now entering their twelfth on and off month. In that time Bexley council has ripped up a bit of paving and replaced it with shiny new slabs and some very nice but impractical curved marble effect benches - guaranteed to give you piles on a cold day - and a bit of funky looking metal work that has been bashed about by the green plastic temporary barriers that have blighted the area for far too long. New pedestrian refuges that are much wider than before leading to what used to be two lane sections of road being barely one and three quarter lanes now. I’ve seen more than one wing mirror lying on the pavement.


Welling CornerTen months of temporary traffic signals were finally replaced two months ago with portable signals. The portable signals have led to even worse traffic congestion. Upper Wickham Lane is frequently backed up all the way to the roundabout at Lodge Hill. This has led to a lot of rat running down streets like Elsa Road and Somerhill Road, Including idiots who have tried to race down our back alleyway. Didn’t get them very far as it’s a cul-de-sac. Getting through Welling Corner along Bellgrove Road is no picnic either. That can take 15 minutes to get through at times. To top it off there is no pedestrian crossing indication so you take your life in hand when crossing as there is no clue as to which direction traffic will be coming from next.

Why the portable signals? Well it looks as though who ever dug everything up last April forgot to put in new cabling and ducting for the replacement signals. Now we have the situation where massive sections of the shiny new paving has been ripped up along with several bits of the pedestrian refuges in order to put down new lengths of wire for the traffic signals. On top of that it now looks like they’re going to be repaving Welling High Street and Bellgrove Road again. Bits have been done already but if memory serves they are the same bits that were repaved around 5 years ago.

Bexley is truly bonkers. (plus a few other words that aren’t suitable to print).


Click any image for enlarged view.

 

Return to the top of this page
Bonkers is a cookie free zone. Not a single one