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Yes, they can - up to five million times a year when it comes to UK's roads. Dealing with those responsible cannot come soon enough, says Guy Bird
A damning documentary has put the newly calculated cost of unrestrained and uncoordinated roadworks to 'UK plc' at more than £8 billion per year. Channel 4's Dispatches: "Who's digging up our roads?" shown last Thursday night, confirmed what every UK business driver suspected: that the way roadworks are mis-managed and allowed to overrun - by utility companies, local authorities and ultimately the Department of Transport - is a nationwide shambles that is causing massive congestion and millions of needlessly wasted man-hours.
The problem has been around for years, but what is new is the scale. The deregulation of water, electricity and telecom companies starting in the early 90s has exacerbated the situation beyond belief.
Back in 1992 there was BT - now there are 144 telecom providers alone and more than 200 separate companies in total legally allowed to dig up our roads (even in 2000 it was only 138). Weave in extra demand for broadband, cable TV, local council pavement repairs and water pipe renewal (in many cases long overdue) and the estimate of annual road excavations is put at five million.
Add the extra traffic on the roads to deliver the goods and services we crave (26 million vehicles ten years ago as opposed to 32 million-plus today) and factor in that much of this traffic is heavier, too (since 2001 the Government has allowed HGVs to drive without restriction on many A-roads that were not designed to take their weight), and you get roads that wear out quicker, meaning more repairs again.
But the fast-paced, hi-tech, consumption-driven society driving this high demand for digging up our roads seems to be coupled with a low desire or incentive on behalf of the workers at the 'coal face' to get on with the job. We've all played the "spot a workman actually working at the roadworks" game as you finally get through yet another hold-up, but Dispatches went one better and obtained covert video proving the point.
One set of contractors for Surrey County Council were shown doing everything except work - going to the building society, off to the bakers, back to the depot 'for materials', tea breaks, chats, supermarket sweeps (oh, and 57 minutes out of a seven-hour shift laying a couple of kerbstones on site, which it transpires after the investigation into their bunking off were laid incorrectly and had to be re-done). Which is quite funny until you remember this behaviour multiplied endlessly across the UK is collectively costing us £8bn a year.
A new law - the Traffic Management Act of 2004 - was supposed to stop taxpayers being ripped off in such a way, by increasing daily fines up to £2500 on utility companies for late work (from the measly amounts currently levied - a few hundred pounds up to £2000 for the busiest roads) and stipulating a three-month notice period for major works (as opposed to one month previously) to help local councils better coordinate multiple applications. But as of late 2006, little of the Act relating to road works is yet 'implemented' into law.
In fact, the 'dig figures' Dispatches quotes are based on an extrapolation of the Department of Transport's own estimates for utility companies released this month in yet another consultation paper relating to the same long-delayed Act. The deadline for submissions to this paper is late November. The timeframe for final implementation into law is still unclear.
Meanwhile, utility companies that do get fined can still pass these extra costs on to their customers - i.e. all of us - in higher bills.
Or they can instead exaggerate the length of time needed to carry out their works - by up to 50% according to a DfT study - to avoid the fine in the first place.
Your business suffers either way.
The Traffic Management Act, when all of it finally becomes law, will help to some extent, but only if it is enforced as fully as possible. Whether this needs a national roadworks 'czar' to coordinate - as was mooted some years back but has since been deemed by the DfT as unworkable for England, apparently due to the number of local councils involved - or whether simply more Government resource in time and specific local authority funding to help them 'police their own holes' would make more a difference, it's not yet clear.
What is clear, right now, is that not enough time is being devoted to reduce the digging chaos. It would be a tough, time-consuming and expensive job, but if it saved a fraction of that reported £8bn wasted by getting Britain's roads moving again, few would begrudge the outlay.
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