[bikeqld] Ice skating on Sylvan Rd

Wed Oct 28 00:07:24 CDT 2009

Totally agree Kim ...!

In the nations biggest local authority with expertise authorised to 
carry out engineering works costed in the tens of billions of 
dollars, it isn't about competence.

Far more it is the fact there are too many Mexicans who don't seem to 
remember (or were not here) when BCC decided cycling was a "good thing" ...!

Clearly it is by far the best solution for Council if an individual 
rings up and complains ... that's why Council promotes that process 
... in part so nobody else knows ...!

If you don't accept that view, try finding or requesting data on how 
many complaints relating to say, cycling, were lodged last year and 
what the complaint was about.

The reality is that BCC continues to carry out works of all kinds ... 
on the cheap ... and in all probability with little if any of the 
prerequisite surveys, audits etc ... to save money and reliant on a 
secret complaints system to cover any mistakes.

It is a bit like the problem caused by people who have crashes in 
similar situations due to substandard facilities, but then don't 
pursue the Council for costs and damages ... the complaints and their 
causes then don't exist ...

Is BCC subject to any form of Quality Assurance process? That is 
another question that might well be pursued. If it does, is it open 
to inspection?

Or does Council need to do nothing because it chooses to rely, as in 
this case, on putting the blame/responsibility on somebody else?

BTW if you ask to see the pre-project material, Council will reject 
that as it is for internal operational use not for public scrutiny ...!

Should we have to try to pay for and use FOI ???

And in case anybody thinks it is only cycling facilities, it isn't ...!

Its just that you tend not to know about the other places the same 
sorts of problems occur .. because they too are based on secret 
individual complaints.

This is why we appear to be a bunch of whingers to anyone not 
familiar with what should be done ... and sadly, that includes the 
Councillors and the Lord Mayor ... who believe what they are told by 
their bureaucrats ... so no need to investigate further..

MY.................

At 12:44 PM 28/10/2009, kim wrote:

>Hi John,
>
>I would hope that Council knew about it because it is a major 
>project to decommission the water main from the city out to the west 
>side which dates from the 1800's and projects of this nature all 
>need to have an approved safety audit done. Sure, I have reported 
>it, most of the works and ATU folk in Council know me as the regular 
>complainer regarding cycling issues, but it is not just a matter of 
>a simple fix that concerns me. I had met up with Council Works 
>people there not long ago to discuss many of the problems with the 
>pavement and markings which they then fixed up. At that time we 
>discussed the control that Council had over contractors doing the 
>works there, as that was much of the problem. And here we are just a 
>few months later and more of exactly the same is happening with yet 
>another contractor. That's what concerns me. I know we can report 
>problems as we see them, and some of us make the effort to do that, 
>but the real solution is to make sure that the problems do not keep 
>recurring when they could be avoided by doing things by the books. 
>It is very unlikely too that the contractor will just whip out there 
>and pull those plates up. It is raining as I type and the risk is 
>still there. I have been told by Council's project manager for this 
>that the contractor, Tenix, has yet to go out there and investigate 
>it. It's not just the metal plates that are dodgy, on the opposite 
>side they have claimed much of the parking/bike lane to store their 
>diggers and equipment and there is no prior warning for cyclists 
>that the lane is constricted or there are any works in progress, nor 
>are there any reflective measures to highlight the closure in the 
>dark. It's as if the bike lane was not considered important and they 
>were just taking up a few parking places. That's what gets me grumpy.
>
>k
>
>John Nightingale wrote:
>>
>>Kim, Have you phoned the call centre or sent a Fix-o-gram to Council? Thanks
>>for the warning, but it'll be fixed only if Council knows about it, and I've
>>had reasonable results from both phone & internet complaints.
>>J.
>>
>>
>>On 27/10/09 5:52 PM, "kim" 
>><mailto:pharmer_kim at hotmail.com><pharmer_kim at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>
>>>Westside commuters will have noticed the return of the metal plates on
>>>the bike lane inbound on Sylvan Rd at Toowong. A contractor is doing the
>>>pipeworks there. Pretty poor timing as Council has just finished
>>>patching, resealing and marking that road. Some of the new bike symbols
>>>are gone yet again. Dodgy patches have been made to the water service
>>>covers which have sunk already (council's efforts last time were to fix
>>>previous dodgy patches that had sunken) The real highlight though, are
>>>the large polished metal plates that have been placed smack bang across
>>>the bike lane. No warnings, no lighting, and like riding on ice when wet
>>>as they were yesterday. I just have no idea how they can get to be
>>>there, it's like nobody is even aware it is a bike lane and no safety
>>>checklist has been done by the contractor or council. Is anybody really
>>>concerned unless there is an accident? The upside tho is that unlike the
>>>previous ones placed by Origin this contractor has been courteous enough
>>>to build up some cold mix around the edges so we don't have the 40mm
>>>step we had last time.
>>>
>>><http://www.bikeqld.org.au/wiki/Image:Towong_-_Sylvan_Road_-_Metal_plates.JPG>http://www.bikeqld.org.au/wiki/Image:Towong_-_Sylvan_Road_-_Metal_plates.JPG
>>>
>>>k
>>>
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>>>This list has NO affiliation with Bicycle Queensland.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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