I spoke to a chap from Devon County Council Highways Department yesterday.

Apparently in future, rather than traffic light controlled two-way working, we’re going to see far more road closures.

There are two reasons for this. The first is safety related.

In order to allow two-way working there has to be  a clear three metre width for the traffic plus a 1.5 metre safety buffer zone. Many of the roads in North Devon aren’t wide enough to allow this. The contractor, South West Highways, are being extremely zealous about sticking to the rules.

The second reason, is, as ever, about money. Apparently it costs less to close a road than it does to institute two-way working. The costing obviously doesn’t include the loss of productivity and the extra fuel costs for those who may have to make a detour of several miles.