Sunday morning road works along with incomplete works at 0932 on 13th July 2008. The steel plate covering a hole in the middle of the road makes a loud noise each time a vehicle passes over it day and night.

At the same time there is early Sunday morning road works presumably the same project by Laing O'Rourke on behalf of Thames Water replacing the century old water mains. There is a front load digger out of sight to the right where the guy is digging in the hole. It was filmed a few minutes before this clip.

I have no complaint about the road works being carried out for this most important water conservation project even if it is on a Sunday morning. The problem here is that the steel plate covering a hole in the middle of the road has been making this excessive noise shown and heard here since Tuesday last around the clock every time a vehicle rolls over it.

This reflects an incomplete job that is a serious noise nuisance to the hundreds of residents nearby and creates a possible hazard if this plate should move.

At first on Tuesday I lived with it under my window throughout the evening and night. It was not noticeable on Wednesday which I believe was due to the heavy rains during the day that must have somehow dampened the noise.

However, on Thursday this noise nuisance returned without any works in the area. At noon I notify the Highways Department at the Council about this problem and received an Email reply indicating that they had contacted Laing O'Rourke to correct it.

It was not repaired properly on Thursday and continued throughout the night into Friday when I again Emailed the Council and called Laing O'Rourke myself since I was afraid that this would be allowed to continue throughout the weekend. A phone message reply was left on my answering machine indicating once again that the problem was being addressed.

It has gone on all night and day since Friday for two days until this morning when the works as noted started around 9:00 am, so I filmed it and captured both works personnel present and the noise nuisance and possible safety hazard problem that has been allowed to persist since Tuesday last. I managed to capture the loud noise a vehicle makes when travelling over this steel plate.

I do not know what the standards are for this kind of works, but I would think that putting such a plate loosely on the top of the road like this is unacceptable. My repeated notifications did no good, and this was allowed to continue throughout the day and night into the weekend causing a disturbance to all who live in its proximity especially all night long whenever a vehicle passes by.

To fail to address this properly in this manner reflects a deliberate disregard and disrespect for those who live and try to sleep in the area especially impacting small children.

There is a primary school across the street whose service gate entrance can be seen. Although the road works is part of the daily activity when it occurs which is infrequent, this unnecessary and extremely loud noise nuisance must impact the teaching during the day by disrupting classroom concentration and learning.

At the moment I see this as a contractor who is trying to cut corners and get away with substandard work which impacts the community's quality of life adversely causing a noise nuisance disruption to all as well as a possible safety hazard for traffic.

Perhaps they thought that they could just ignore this problem until they finished their work which appears to be coming to a conclusion next week after a couple months of this water main replacement project along this road.

I'm interested to see if those who are working on Sunday morning right next to this obvious noise nuisance and possible safety hazard actually take the time to correct it in light of my notifications made on Thursday and Friday.

It's unfortunate to see this kind of environmental safety and health disregard coupled with a project costing billions that is so important for water conservation and the environment. (less info)