Traffic shaking the gaff!

[ashleywlkr]

Hello everyone,

I?ve recently moved back to the area, and I?m now located towards the top of lordship lane by the plough.

Since we moved in, I?ve noticed that heavy traffic like busses and HGVs violently shake the house when they pass at a high speed, or at a regular speed going down the hill. There is a defect in the road which amplified the movement.

When I say shake, I mean, really shake, all of the furniture makes a noise, the house creeks, and it often wakes us up.

I?ve written to the council and have had some disappointing responses, unsurprisingly.

It?s affecting our sleep, well being and general happiness, and I really wish something could be done.

Most concerning of all is the fact that I have almost been knocked over out there by busses speeding past.

My question to you is, how do I have the council take this more seriously? Because currently I am getting nowhere with them, and aside from going to Tooley st and kicking off at them in person, I?m stuck for what to do.

Thanks

Ash

[Sally Eva]

Buses are TfL. Contact your councillor but what are you asking them to do?

[Sue]

Lordship Lane is a main road and a bus route.

I can't quite see how the council or anybody else could do anything about the traffic?

ETA: When you say there is a "defect" in the road, what do you mean? A bump?

ETA: And if you think buses are breaking the speed limit, you would probably need details of the specific buses, which wouldn't be very easy to get I imagine if you are inside your house.

Though probably worth asking TfL anyway just in case they can do something.

[Sally Eva]

you could approach Community Speedwatch [email protected] and ask them to do speed checks. If you can get details of the buses then TfL take complaints about buses and are supposed to be moving towards over-riders to limit them to the speedlimit -- which would be 20mph at this point.

[bobbsy]

I find the same on Underhill Road. Skip and other large delivery trucks barrel down over the speed humps very fast, rattle the house.

[binkylilyput]

Happens in my house too- weirdly I notice it more in the bedroom at the back of the house (so off the road). Shakes the bed!

Luckily my road has a lot less buses than Lordship......otherwise it would be dreadful!

[George Orwell]

SE22 and the surrounding area is sitting on a clay subsoil. Clay is something of a jelly and vibrates when 'provoked' and unfortunately we can't do much about it.

[James Barber]

Home vibrations from vehicles passing is usually caused by potholes or the like. But Lordship Lane has been relatively recently resurfaced.

So assuming not an issue with road surface then I'm puzzled as indeed would council officials be.

[Siduhe]

We live on a double decker bus route and have experienced this in the recent past due to a pothole in the road. Once that pothole was fixed, it's gone back to normal, but one thing that did help was getting our windows looked at and getting the seal around the windows renewed (we have heavy, aluminium frame windows).

Once we stopped the windows from vibrating the travel through the rest of the house was much less for us (even though we couldn't particularly hear the windows moving, but that seemed to be the main vibration point for us).

[George Orwell]

The wetter the soil the more jelly like it becomes until ultimately with plenty of vibration you get liquefaction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_liquefaction

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_clay

Of course you are unlikely to get these scenarios in Dulwich, but our clay has gone from very stiff and dry in the hot summer to this wetter softer stuff after all this rainfall. Are some feeling the slight difference in moisture content as increased vibration ?

[heartblock]

Happens on ED Grove, council will not do anything about vibration from traffic speed bumps, but they might fix potholes. I had a lengthy discourse about 3 years ago with them. 4K of acoustic glass has helped the noise, but skips going over speed bumps sound like an explosion 💥

[gabys1st]

See f neigbours affected, if so power in mumbers when comes to complaini

[redpost]

I had the same issue with vibrations from the speed bumps outside my house. The solution is some serious bracing of the floor joists and coupling them to the wall structure. Together with triple glazed acoustic glass windows, my front rooms are near silent and vibration free.

[ashleywlkr]

An update -

I'm in the midst of multiple email threads with the council and highways, they seem to be taking seriously at the moment, and have sent a surveyor to assess the road etc.

I believe there is an ongoing report to assess the need for traffic calming measures on lordship lane, as I believe there have been multiple complaints about the speeding vehicles. A car actually hit my car the other day which was stationary outside my home, but that's another matter entirely.

Thank you all for your input, and George for your insight Into the physics of the jelly soil, most intruiging.

[Springer]

Get used to it or move to the sticks

[PeckhamNicola]

Make sure traffic calming measures are not speed bumps or you will double your problems.

[ashleywlkr]

Hello everyone!

An update... I have received an email from Margy Newens, who has forwarded me a response from the highways department.

They highlighted that the particular issue was caused by a subsided part of the road left by a poorly replaced dig by a utility company.

They have assured me that the council will fix the multiple subsidence patches in the road within the next two weeks.

I'm delighted with the response, and very impressed with their attitude towards the matter, however, the proof is in the pudding, so we'll see.

Best, Ash

[Willard]

Fingers crossed for you, hope you get it sorted.

[TheArtfulDogger]

So glad you are getting this sorted

The explosion of speed humps in East Dulwich is a pain as cars get bigger to defeat them and so trucks and 4*4s make the house shake

Hope that this won't happen when it's sorted

[JL]

Hi Ashley,

we're having a similar problem down the road between houses No. 248 and 256: several cross-sectional cracks causing vibration to the surrounding houses when HGVs and buses pass through. Same cause as well ? faulty communal pipe works undertaken a few years ago.

We have been dealing with the council since November 2018 as we wanted them to include our section of the road in their November resurfacing programme, and whilst they did not include it, they sent surveyors and promised to repair the road in early 2019. However, we haven't heard from them since February.

I wanted to ask whether the email you received from the highways department mentioned just the section of LL around Plough or also other sections? I just hope they will now repair ALL the damaged sections!

Many thanks,

JL

[Sazzle30]

Be careful, traffic calming speed humps made it worse on Ivydale even caused subsidence. They removed the speed humps last month

[ashleywlkr]

Hi Everyone,

An update for you, especially you JL;

I have been in ongoing conversations with Southwark, notably Margy Newens and the Highways department.

They were particularly helpful in rectifying the issue and although the damage to the road was left by a utility company, the council sorted it out. I must say, they were super helpful come the end, and I commend them for that.

The works to repair the road have now finished, they took place today this morning. The man that laid the cones out yesterday even mentioned that he'd laid our driveway some 15 years ago!

Anyway, a huge victory for the row of houses surrounding mine that suffer from the traffic on the road.

However, something still needs to be done about the speed at which the traffic is travelling in both directions, especially busses... I had to have a word with a bus driver the other day, as I was on his bus in the evening rush hour and we came down dog kennel hill at around 35mph, and proceeded to maintain that speed driving past the station and up grove vale. I have of course contacted both TFL and the council and have filed a complaint to the particular bus in question, but that doesn't stop the rest of them, sadly. I feel it's only a matter of time before there is some sort of accident involving speeding vehicles around the lordship area.

Thanks all!

Ash

[spider69]

35 miles an hour in the evening rush hour through the station traffic lights and the raised platform by Coplestone Road?

[ashleywlkr]

yes but early last week - Tuesday last week I think it was.

[mynamehere]

https://www.southwark.gov.uk/transport-and-roads/roadworks-and-highway-improvements/street-improvements/our-healthy-streets-dulwich

Please fill in this consultation! It's on exactly this topic!