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Road Conditions
mistergrumpy - 5/7/10 at 09:21 PM

Just been across town to my parents on the motorbike and started to notice the condition of the road surface on the main road to town. Apart from the usual sunken manholes and fissures there's a lot of scarring with the top layer of tarmac missing. Now I can see that as a main road it is probably contributable to the wagons and buses using it but they've fully du the bugger up twice now in 3 years and relayed it.
So I was wondering is it unavoidable or is it just that being British we like to choose the cheapest option and so this results in a shoddy job?


blakep82 - 5/7/10 at 09:22 PM

cheapest option i think


Paul TigerB6 - 5/7/10 at 09:34 PM

Definately down to a cheap and shoddy job. Roads when they are resurfaced these days are rarely done properly.

I used to work for Shell Bitumen and was involved in designing road surfaces, so know what proper road design is.


clairetoo - 5/7/10 at 09:37 PM

That seems to be the practice around here - cheap OK looking job every other year rather than a proper job every ten years
There is one roundabout near me (on an A road/coalville bypass) that they do every year (causing traffic chaos while they close one side of the roundabout at a time for a day....)


mistergrumpy - 5/7/10 at 09:40 PM

Can't understand why they do it. Surely it's false economy.
Once upon a time we were a nation to be envious of and had world leading engineering but I guess it's like Spike Milligan said. "An O.B.E? I'd rather have the Order of Milton Keynes, at least that still exists!"


PSpirine - 5/7/10 at 10:23 PM

Is it just me or is the M42 between the M40 and M6 got loads worse where it's concrete slab paving? Feels like driving over washboard.

In my village there's a roundabout that requires offroading skills to navigate.


It's funny, I come from Cyprus where the roads can only be described as horrible.. but coming here, I don't know what the big deal was, it's most certainly not any better here!


drhunter - 5/7/10 at 11:18 PM

Isn't it our road tax and fuel duty that should be fixing the roads?
I blame all of these economical, environmentally friendly, low road tax vehicles for depriving our government of the funds needed to fix the roads


A1 - 6/7/10 at 01:13 AM

you should see edinburgh right now!:O there was a rise in road height so severe (ta, trams) that the mk almost grounded.
its ridiculous!


speedyxjs - 6/7/10 at 05:58 AM

I think its the councils being tight. When i was up in scotland (Fort William area) i couldnt believe how good the roads were compared to down here (and they were still full of potholes)!


coozer - 6/7/10 at 07:30 AM

There's a section of the A690 going into Sunderland where they relayed about 1/3 mile on the inside lane. They planed the road and used one of them paving machines.

The surface is so rippled it makes the car resonate and the road noise is high. Moving into the outside lane all this goes away.

Its not just the shabby patching up, its all the shoddy workmanship.

Just over the border in good old Co. Durham its still spray tar and chippings and the roads are generally better (after all the chippings have gone!)


Strontium Dog - 6/7/10 at 08:55 AM

My mates girlfriend just rolled there golf gti through a hedge with an 8 week old baby in the car. Three other cars rolled on the same dead straight section of road in a 7 hour period. The next day lots of caution signs were put up and the HUGE amount of gravel they had tipped on the road was hoovered up.

Nice work.


Guinness - 6/7/10 at 09:20 AM

There are some brilliant country lanes that we frequent, frequently as part of the start / end of blats in the North East.

Last spring they were re-tarmaced and new white lines put on. All looked lovely and smooth.

This spring it is apparent that what they did last year was put down less than an inch of tarmac over the top of the existing surface.

Where the old surface had grip, the new stuff has bonded to it and you have lovely new tarmac with some random white lines.

Where the old surface had worn smooth, in the middle of corners, braking areas, basically two long strips in either direction, the new stuff has delaminated, and turned to gravel.

So what we have now is a smooth and worn road surface with gravel on the top.

Nice.

Oh and a set of confusing white lines where the middle of the road changes by a foot or so to the left or right, depending on which white line is showing through.

Mike


mistergrumpy - 6/7/10 at 09:38 AM

It's ridiculous. I always thought thought road tax and fuel duty was to repair roads too but now it's affected by your engine emissions. So how do emissions affect the road? It's weight or length that surely counts. Oo er


Ivan - 6/7/10 at 09:40 AM

quote:
Originally posted by mistergrumpy
Can't understand why they do it. Surely it's false economy.
Once upon a time we were a nation to be envious of and had world leading engineering but I guess it's like Spike Milligan said. "An O.B.E? I'd rather have the Order of Milton Keynes, at least that still exists!"


Based on my 40 years experience of municipal engineering in South Africa I would lay money on the fact that the accountants and politicians override the engineers all the time - so it's not poor engineering but side-lining of the engineers in the decision making process that leads to poor maintenance.


morcus - 6/7/10 at 06:11 PM

Funny you should say that because I saw an advert for a program about how over the last 13 years the government has been doing just that.

what pisses me off most is that the moment they sort out a road here, they're straight away digging it up to put in cables or its ruined by lorries before its even set (I wish I'd had my camera when I saw a lorry parked for the week end on a peice of road that had been resurfaced that week.

It takes them for ever to do it as well, there are still roads in Ashford with huge pot holes from the heavy snow in January, and most of the ones they 'fixed they just filled in so theres still a problem.


Ninehigh - 6/7/10 at 09:02 PM

quote:
Originally posted by speedyxjs
I think its the councils being tight. When i was up in scotland (Fort William area) i couldnt believe how good the roads were compared to down here (and they were still full of potholes)!


Councils being bloody stupid more like!

The M56 down our way is so deeply rutted I have to drive at about 75mph so I can stay in the 3rd lane and keep in a straight line..