Major roadworks at the Bow Roundabout continue. They're now into their fourth month although it feels like forever, especially if you get stuck in queueing traffic.
Not much appears to have happened since the start of December, which is in part because no work was done over Christmas and New Year. In good news they took down the cones on Bow Road during that period, helping to prevent unnecessary delays, but in bad news they didn't do that on the other three approach roads and tailbacks remained.
The most obvious change is that workmen have finished filling in where the contraflow lane used to enter the roundabout and it's become pedestrian-accessible public realm. This benefits pretty much nobody. Further resurfacing has taken place under the flyover where the contraflow is to be redirected. A few new kerbs have been installed because a lot of the work is about shifting where the edge of the roadway is. New tactile paving has been installed where two sets of traffic lights haven't yet been installed. As the weeks go by plastic barriers occasionally shift, forcing pedestrians to walk a slightly different route to cross the road.
Further liminal faffing has taken place under the Bow side of the flyover. For weeks the realigned kerb has been finished but with an untarmacked foot-deep trench alongside, temporarily sealed behind a row of plastic barriers. They could have filled in this trench ages ago and restored the breadth of the roundabout to traffic, which is what I'd have done if I was running operations, but they know better so they haven't.
It doesn't yet feel like we're approaching the end of the roadworks because not all of the realigned roadway is ready. The intended end date remains massively unclear.
• According to the yellow poster at Bus Stop M it's 15th January.
• According to the electronic sign on Stratford High Street it's 16th January.
• According to the works notice attached to the barriers it's 16th January.
• According to the yellow roadsign on the A12 sliproad it's 4th February.
• According to the updated one.network online map it's 3rd March.
I fear the last of those is the most accurate, which suggests this interminable fiddling still has two months to run.
