Road closed...

"Dave Larrington" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

So there I was, hurtling home in a wind-impeded kind of way.

"Road Closed" said a big red sign.

"Hah!", I thought. "This will surely not apply to one who might, at the
drop of a shoe onto the road, turn into a pedestrian!"

Wrong.

I did once find a road closed sign the hard way, by hitting it from behind.
It had fallen over, it was dark, and I was emerging from the floods it was
warning of. They weren't kidding though - it was properly deep.

More recently the only one which has got me was when they dug up the entire
railway bridge. At least my detour wasn't as silly as yours though :-)

cheers,
clive

Clive George said:

"Dave Larrington" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

So there I was, hurtling home in a wind-impeded kind of way.

"Road Closed" said a big red sign.

"Hah!", I thought. "This will surely not apply to one who might, at the
drop of a shoe onto the road, turn into a pedestrian!"

Wrong.

I did once find a road closed sign the hard way, by hitting it from behind.
It had fallen over, it was dark, and I was emerging from the floods it was
warning of. They weren't kidding though - it was properly deep.

More recently the only one which has got me was when they dug up the entire
railway bridge. At least my detour wasn't as silly as yours though :-)

I once thought that a sign "Danger loose chippings" was only meant for
cars, not me. Did I stop suddenly? Well, the bike did, and I did not.
They were rather deep, not a mild superficial scattering.
Pass the embrocation.

Dave Larrington said:

So there I was, hurtling home in a wind-impeded kind of way.

"Road Closed" said a big red sign.

"Hah!", I thought. "This will surely not apply to one who might, at the
drop of a shoe onto the road, turn into a pedestrian!"

Wrong.

An extra 15 km, mostly over nasty busy roads through Broxbourne,
Cheshunt and Waltham Cross, into the wind.

Bah!

(oils knees)

On a recent ride I passed a road closed sign on a narrow country road
with another hand written sign below it stating "And it really is
closed". However, even this did not put me off. A km or two down the
road I had to gingerly cross the partially complete bridge but was then
on my way again.

Gordon

gjt70 wrote on 01/08/2006 09:07 +0100:

Quoted message said:

Dave Larrington wrote:

On a recent ride I passed a road closed sign on a narrow country road
with another hand written sign below it stating "And it really is
closed". However, even this did not put me off. A km or two down the
road I had to gingerly cross the partially complete bridge but was then
on my way again.

A couple of years ago going from Royston to Hunstanton I found something
similar between Ely and Downham Market except the whole bridge was
missing. The workmen though very kindly stopped to let me walk down the
bank, through their construction site and up the other side

--
Tony

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using
his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
- Leonardo da Vinci

Clive George said:

More recently the only one which has got me was when they dug up the entire
railway bridge. At least my detour wasn't as silly as yours though :-)

I've done that (dug up an entire railway bridge). It's remarkable how
many motorists drive past 'road closed' signs, turn up at the gap in
the road then expect something to be done to magic their car across
15m of fresh air. Then they get arsey. I've been threatened with
physical violence once or twice, but fortunately at a railway
construction site one is not normally short of large gentlemen who can
persuade an aggressive motorist that they really meant to get back in
their car and return whence they came.

They'll even move rows of cones and temporary fence panels - at the
last one I was at we had steel pedestrian barriers across the full
width of the road at several positions on the approach, and still cars
would turn up at the work site.

But the best was a site where we'd taken away the deck, and there was
just four iron beams crossing the railway. An elderly gent with
bicycle turned up, having bypassed cones, large fence panels, warning
signs and whatnot, and proceeded to try and wheel his bike across the
top flange of a beam...

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

"Ian Smith" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

But the best was a site where we'd taken away the deck, and there was
just four iron beams crossing the railway. An elderly gent with
bicycle turned up, having bypassed cones, large fence panels, warning
signs and whatnot, and proceeded to try and wheel his bike across the
top flange of a beam...

I'd be on for that! (bow big was the beam? How close were they - could you
do bike on one beam, feet on another?)

Riding somewhere in Wales we came to a bridge which was being rebuilt. Half
of us went round the ford, but the people spannering the road helped one of
our party carry their bike over the gap and let them ride off.

cheers,
clive

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden]
says...

Quoted message said:

But the best was a site where we'd taken away the deck, and there was
just four iron beams crossing the railway. An elderly gent with
bicycle turned up, having bypassed cones, large fence panels, warning
signs and whatnot, and proceeded to try and wheel his bike across the
top flange of a beam...

I have a vague recollection of reading of someone doing this on an ex-
railway bridge across the tidal section of the Trent...

--
Dave Larrington - <http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/>
Bandersnatch? I would never have guessed.

Ian Smith said:

Clive George said:

More recently the only one which has got me was when they dug up the entire
railway bridge. At least my detour wasn't as silly as yours though :-)

I've done that (dug up an entire railway bridge). It's remarkable how
many motorists drive past 'road closed' signs, turn up at the gap in
the road then expect something to be done to magic their car across
15m of fresh air. Then they get arsey. I've been threatened with
physical violence once or twice, but fortunately at a railway
construction site one is not normally short of large gentlemen who can
persuade an aggressive motorist that they really meant to get back in
their car and return whence they came.

They'll even move rows of cones and temporary fence panels - at the
last one I was at we had steel pedestrian barriers across the full
width of the road at several positions on the approach, and still cars
would turn up at the work site.

But the best was a site where we'd taken away the deck, and there was
just four iron beams crossing the railway. An elderly gent with
bicycle turned up, having bypassed cones, large fence panels, warning
signs and whatnot, and proceeded to try and wheel his bike across the
top flange of a beam...

Similarly, I was in deepest Hampshire a week or two back. Stoner Hill,
which is used on Pam Pilbeams Denmead 200 is closed, as part of it has
succumbed to gravity and buggered of in a downwards direction, leaving
gert big bites out of the carriageway. The local authority have closed
the road, put Heras fencing up then concreted in full on spikey
security gates with a sign saying "Road closed, no admittance".
While working there three cyclists came past. It's a construction
site. It's not a safe place. "Didn't you read the sign?" "What sign?"
"The sign on the gate you climbed over...."

At the foot of the hill there's a bridleway which bypasses the whole
closure and is cunningly also part of the Hampshire Cycle Network.

Tim

Clive George said:

"Ian Smith" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

But the best was a site where we'd taken away the deck, and there was
just four iron beams crossing the railway. An elderly gent with
bicycle turned up, having bypassed cones, large fence panels, warning
signs and whatnot, and proceeded to try and wheel his bike across the
top flange of a beam...

I'd be on for that! (bow big was the beam? How close were they - could you
do bike on one beam, feet on another?)

It was some time ago - I don't recall the dimensions, but it was a
jack arch deck - in such a structure the beams are typically 4'
centres or more, and the top flange is typically only 4" or 5" or less
(cast iron is much stronger in compression than in tension, and the
top flange is correspondingly narrower than the bottom flange).

The diversion we had was about about 400m (there was another bridge
200m down the railway).

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

Ian Smith <[email hidden]> whizzed past me shouting

Quoted message said:

Clive George said:

"Ian Smith" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

But the best was a site where we'd taken away the deck, and there was
just four iron beams crossing the railway. An elderly gent with
bicycle turned up, having bypassed cones, large fence panels, warning
signs and whatnot, and proceeded to try and wheel his bike across the
top flange of a beam...

I'd be on for that! (bow big was the beam? How close were they - could you
do bike on one beam, feet on another?)

It was some time ago - I don't recall the dimensions, but it was a
jack arch deck - in such a structure the beams are typically 4'
centres or more, and the top flange is typically only 4" or 5" or less
(cast iron is much stronger in compression than in tension, and the
top flange is correspondingly narrower than the bottom flange).

OK, so could we walk across it carrying our MTB on one shoulder?

--
Sue ];(🙂