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BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Call to empower Kent council to limit disruptive street works
Local authorities should be given new powers to limit the disruption caused by street works undertaken by utility companies, a group of MPs has said.A report published on Wednesday by the Transport Committee makes a number of suggestions after hearing that councils felt ill-equipped to manage include tighter controls on the use of "immediate" or "urgent" permits, and allowing all local highway authorities adopt "lane rental schemes" which would charge utility companies for each day that works are carried County Council's (KCC) cabinet member for highways and transport Bill Barrett said they "welcome the report", after road closure permits hit a record high in 2023/24. "We are pleased to have the chance to share the frustrations of Kent's residents and businesses about the increasing number of unplanned utility roadworks," Mr Barrett committee's recommendations, especially tougher rules on immediate permits and longer guarantees on roadwork, "would help the county council to better protect Kent's roads and keep Kent moving", he said."We now urge the government to act on these proposals," he Cadbury from the Transport Committee said: "Street works can feel like a recurring nightmare. "The complaints are all too familiar: temporary traffic lights appearing overnight on a road that was already dug up a few months ago, sites left unattended on weekends, works overrunning, lorries diverted down roads too small for them, and disabled people often unable to negotiate their way around the site safely."The committee said permits allowing companies to dig up roads at short notice should only be used in emergency situations. Increasing repair costs Given the difficulties in monitoring this, it has recommended that the Department for Transport (DfT) consult on a new definition that prevents the use of these permits in non-emergency situations. While some local authorities are permitted to charge up to £2,500 per day while street works are carried out, the committee argues that the DfT should let more councils set up their own lane rental schemes without the need for government executive of utilities representative body Street Works UK, Clive Bairsto, saif this will "lead to the development of inconsistent schemes which will not be in the best interests of the utility bill-payers".Utility companies are currently responsible for the quality of the road surfaces they have reinstated for two years after street works have completed, or for three years for deeper excavations. The committee recommends this period be extended to five years. Any cracks that appear after two years are currently repaired using taxpayers' Bairsto says that this extension "will certainly drive up the cost of utility works" if Works UK members are concerned the arguments put forward against the extension "have not been properly reflected", he added.A DfT spokesperson said: "We wholeheartedly agree that street works are far too disruptive for drivers and that is why we have taken action to prevent the impact on drivers."They added the department "will put measures in place so 50% of surplus lane rental funds must be invested into highway maintenance".
ABC News
08-05-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Soviet Kosmos 482 probe will crash back to Earth. But where will it land?
A decades-old Soviet spacecraft originally bound for Venus will crash down to Earth within the next 48 hours, according to experts. They've been tracking the progress of Kosmos 482 — Photo shows A grainy photo of a white large bead-shaped hunk of metal with 'CCCP' emblazoned in red on the sides. What is Kosmos 482? And should you be worried? We have answers to all your questions here. Tracking a space object that's hurtling around Earth every hour and a half is no easy task, but predicting where it will land days ahead of time is almost impossible, according to Bill Barrett, an orbital expert from Asia Pacific Aerospace Consultants. "It's very hard just to predict when something like this is going to come back … [it's] one of the hardest things in orbital mechanics," he said. So what do we currently know, how do experts track the spacecraft, and why is it so hard to predict when and where it will crash? When will Kosmos 482 crash? Latest predictions suggest Kosmos 482 may land sometime on Saturday (Australian time) but there is a window of uncertainty either side of that so it may land even earlier. Currently, Kosmos 482 is circling the planet at an orbit of around 140 kilometres at its lowest and 260km at its highest. This is rapidly dropping as it tumbles around the Earth, and experts predict the probe will soon hit the point of no return. The orbit of Kosmos 482 has been deteriorating since its failed launch in 1972. ( ABC Science/NASA ) Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded space organisation in the US, has been using publicly available radar data supplied by the US Space Surveillance network to track the out-of-control probe. At time of publishing, 12:37 PM AEST on Saturday, May 10 , with 16 hours leeway either side. But other experts, such as Marco Langbroek at from Delft Technical University in the Netherlands, who has been tracking the object since 2019, suggests that the spacecraft might come down about That means the spacecraft could crash back to Earth as early as 8pm AEST Friday . "Over the past months, [our modelling] persistently pointed to re-entry within a few days of May 9 or 10," he said. Where will the probe crash? It's tricky to exactly predict when an object like Kosmos 482 will come down, but that pales in comparison when trying to work out where it might land. Aerospace Corporation has created a prediction map that highlights the predicted path — or ground track — of Kosmos 482 during the re-entry window, which appears to cover a lot of the Earth, including parts of Australia. The re-entry prediction map as of Thursday still showed a large amount of ground tracks. ( Supplied: Aerospace Corporation ) But don't panic, in reality these tracks only cover a small area, according to Aerospace Corporation engineer Glen Henning. "Any of the gaps between the ground tracks are basically safe. Anything further north or further south is basically safe," he said. As we get closer to re-entry the "But there's still going to be multiple ground tracks leading up to that final prediction. And it still could be anywhere along that [last] ground track up until re-entry," Mr Henning said. Even then, it's a guessing game where the probe will end up until it actually crashes or burns up above Earth. You can check the What is the chance it will land in Australia? It is possible, at this point, the probe could crash somewhere in Australia, but it "largely passes over open land," according to Mr Barrett. "The satellite orbits over Australia during those windows indicates that the satellite does not pass over any major cities in Australia on those orbits," he said. " The risk of the re-entry affecting a major population centre in Australia … is low. " However, the experts warn that if it does land nearby you, it is recommended to not touch it, and let the The map will continue to get updated closer to the re-entry, which you can keep an eye on Because so much of the Earth is covered in water, it is most likely to land in the Ocean, as recent uncontrolled re-entries of And even if it does land on solid ground, Aerospace Corporation predictions suggest there's a risk of just 0.4 per 1000 of serious injury or death to anyone on Earth. Why is it so hard to pin down the predictions? There are a number of factors that affect the accuracy of calculations, according to Mr Barrett. "Where's the Earth's atmosphere at the moment? … Do we have our calculations right? Do we have the mass of the vehicle right? " Subtle nuances can make a huge difference. " But most of the variation and uncertainty about when — and therefore where — Kosmos 482 will go down, is caused by the Sun. "[The Sun] pretty much does whatever it wants to do. It's very hard to predict," Aerospace Corporation's Marlon Sorge, who focuses on orbital and re-entry debris said. Solar storms — when there's an increase of particles and radiation from the Sun — can puff up Earth's atmosphere. A "bigger" atmosphere that extends further into space means the spacecraft will hit it earlier, and atmospheric drag will then pull down the spacecraft quicker, Dr Langbroek said. "If solar activity the coming days is higher than predicted, [Kosmos 482] will come down earlier. If it is lower, it will come down later, " he said. As it gets closer to Saturday, the time frames of when the spacecraft will land should narrow, mostly because the teams can better implement solar data into their models. Will I be able to see it? You can track the space probe's progress on sites such as The probe was built to withstand the atmosphere of Venus, so some experts predict it may not break up as it re-enters Earth's atmosphere. Photographs taken in both 2014 and 2024 by amateur astronomer Ralf Vandebergh show a small thin structure trailing the spacecraft, which he suggested may be the parachute, although others disagree. Images of the probe taken in July 2024 show some kind of structure may be connected to the capsule. ( Supplied: Ralf Vandebergh ) But even if the spacecraft does have a parachute, it's unlikely to slow the descent, which could be around 250 km per hour. At that speed the probe is going so fast it will be hard to see and the fireball it produces is unlikely to be spectacular, according to Aerospace's Mr Sorge. "You're not getting a cloud of shrapnel that's falling down," he said. " It's just a cannonball. " Science in your inbox Get all the latest science stories from across the ABC. 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