Fill the hole website

[sapperadam]

I reported a rather dangerous pothole through the council app.

This one was on a roundabout, not big enough to trouble a car but plenty big enough for a bike and right on the line a bike would take. Reported Wednesday night, cycled that way Friday morning (it was still there Thursday) and the pothole had been well repaired. Was actually quite impressed.

I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my SM-G361F using hovercraft full of eels.

[Psamathe]

One major advantage (for me) with these smartphone apps over direct reporting to Council is that my rides cover 3 different highways authorities and I have no idea where the boundaries are. Often I will know I'm now definitely in <x> Highway Authority area, but quite a bit is harder to know. So the smartphone apps work out from the location which Highway Authority covers the location and reports it to the appropriate authority - when I used to report them, this was a great time saver. Plus a lot quicker filling in details at the hazard (incl a photo) than re-entering details later.

Ian

[Tangled Metal]

Forgive me but why disrupt your ride? I pick a few bad ones or those that are part of a run of holes that I consider to be together. I then remember where they are as I keep riding. I then use Google maps that's part of the reporting site to mark the approximate site. I also put in the comments bit a brief description of their location. I figure they'll drive along the section and see the problem from that. I don't see why you need to even slow down more than you needed to in order to safely negotiate the pothole.

I report as many as I am confident of describing the accurately enough. Then the next ride I'll pick some more do it in bits on each ride but no need to stop. They'll not expect measurements, photographs or a truly accurate description.

As to the value of it I can only say that the ones patched up this way seem pretty decent. Not 100% perfect but a lot better than what was there before. Plus they've held up nicely for a year or more in some cases without failing. They've made my commute a little smoother. Over this winter a.stretch on my.commute got bad. Previously it was ok. I've reported them. Because they're on a main road where it's narrow and twisty with doubt white centre lines I reckon they'll check it out and consider repairs quickly. Wait and see if anything happens.

[Psamathe]

Forgive me but why disrupt your ride? I pick a few bad ones or those that are part of a run of holes that I consider to be together. I then remember where they are as I keep riding. I then use Google maps that's part of the reporting site to mark the approximate site. I also put in the comments bit a brief description of their location. I figure they'll drive along the section and see the problem from that. I don't see why you need to even slow down more than you needed to in order to safely negotiate the pothole.

I report as many as I am confident of describing the accurately enough. Then the next ride I'll pick some more do it in bits on each ride but no need to stop. They'll not expect measurements, photographs or a truly accurate description.
...

I initially tried that but we have so many and remembering I was too "greedy"- I'd remember a few, see some worse ones and add those, then forget which corner the 5th one was on then see a really terrible one ...

In fact it was pretty bad even remembering which ones I had reported (when out riding) having used the Smartphone (as the app does/did not show you existing reports and so many re-appear within a month of repair. I ended up reporting a load in each direction, waiting a long enough to expect them repaired (or until I spotted recent repairs) then that direction was re-reported and if they got a duplicate then they should have fixed it on the previous report. (When you have reported lists at 300+ remembering them is too much for me.

Measurements can be important as my main local Highways have certain "thresholds" on repair times. From memory, if it was 4" deep then it took a higher priority than <4", etc. But I never exaggerated (you (and the system) would quickly lose credibility if you kept reporting it as a sinkhole and when they arrived they found a 6"x6"x0.5" hole. I tended to include my foot in the photos so they'd get an estimate of size and add a depth if it was 4" or deeper.

I don't know what the report to the Highways contains, but one great weakness of these systems is clearing down fixed holes. It would be great if the e-mail to Highways reporting the hazard also included a web link for them to click to record the hazard as fixed (bit like those registration verification e-mails. It it is real easy to clear the fault I'd hope they would take the few moments to improve their ranking in the system. This sort of think takes the operator of the system to communicate a bit with Highways. Ideally Highways would use Open311 systems which would make life easy to report and for people to check on progress.

Ian

[mjr]

Fix my street emails me every month to ask if reported problems have been fixed. Highways have an incentive to mark things as fixed regardless.

[Psamathe]

Fix my street emails me every month to ask if reported problems have been fixed. Highways have an incentive to mark things as fixed regardless.

My problem is remembering where the ones I've reported were. If on a ride you report 10, then 10 next ride, 10 next, remembering to note in the 1st 10 have been repaired a month later is beyond me (without turning it into a massive administrative task).

Certainly on Fill My Hole website Norfolk were never marking any repairs they made as having been repaired. The site does have rankings, and I'd have thought the Council would be keen to look good on the rankings. But if they are not aware of the rankings or if the site has too low a profile or it is just a fiddle to make complete I guess the extra work isn't worthwhile.

Ian

[old_windbag]

Fill that hole is good in that you don't have to know the authority to deal with, it handles that for you. Having said that I posted that a 100yd section of a major A-road( dual carriageway ) was in serious disrepair and potentially dangerous. About 2 weeks later I receieved an email via fill that hole, "Dear Mr Windbag the road in question is not part of our authorized network you must contact the highways agency". I thought sod it I'm not chasing around when you could forward my email, then about a week later the whole 1-200yd section was resurfaced, and repainted . On a dualled A-road I think it was either a good response from those responsible or my timing fitted with their plans anyway?

Beyond that I responded to a repair on fill that hole via the email reply saying leave comments about the work done. I did as the repair was comlete rubbish, I then got an email from CTC saying the authority wouldn't have seen my response as they don't go through...... ehhh? So not sure about that part of it.

[whoof]

It's been years since I reported any.

Today, out for a ride, I counted 21 potholes between Tavistock town centre in the affluent county of Devon to the county border. 4.5miles of A390.
From the border over the bridge into the EU Objective One funded county of Cornwall to the village of Gunnislake, I counted 25 potholes. This is still the A390 but this distance is only half a mile.

Report 'em all??????

This is before I even count them on the minor roads.
They are too numerous to count.

Cornwall Council do seem to have a lot of money available for the up-keep of the highways. When I went back at Easter, on Good Friday there was a huge road sweeper cleaning a lane (which appeared pretty clean already) on the outskirts of Troon (population ~ 5000). Anything to do with double time?

[Heltor Chasca]

If I were to report every pothole I see locally, I'd be on the site permanently.

I was taught the moon was made of cheese. It isn't. Somerset's roads are [emoji853]

[gaz]

Most of my cycling is in one of two local authority areas. I know which roads are HA's (or MoD's) responsibility and how to contact both directly.

Kent (50mm intervention level ) has on-line mapping so I use their own website rather than FtH. Kent will update their website status of a fault to "resolved" (or equivalent wording) if they reject the request, program works for a future date or actually fix it either temporarily or permanently.

Originally Medway's in-house reporting system had no on-line mapping or photo uploads so I used FtH. Medway would never update the status of a fault on FtH. A few years ago they switched to an "off the shelf" external reporting package with mapping and photo uploads, I was happy to switch. Updates were 50/50 at best.

In April they switched back to in-house reporting with no mapping, very difficult to use when you need to look up road names and describe locations rather than dropping a pointer onto a map. There is no provision to track faults on-line even though they are assigned a reference number.

At the moment I'm bearing with it but I'm likely to return to FtH.

[old_windbag]

I think my authority has a 40mm minimum, I saw an authority in scotland( I think ) was moving their minimum depth to 60mm to save money. What I was wondering was.... how about going out in dead of night to the minimal potholes and "digging" them out until they are definitely beyond the minimum . It's a tricky one, as it guarantees the hole has to be filled, but also may increase the existing high risk of an injury to other road users...... so my fears would be in hurting others rather than criminal damage, which in many ways it isn't. It's just forcing authorities to do what they should be doing without question or petty rules.

[ferrit worrier]

Just spent half an hour reporting potholes and surfaces being repair. Not easy on a mobile.

I hope some of you guys do this as well. I did it last year and a month later a few holes got filled. Just not the one I rode into. Still I've reported the same section and several other sections too. Let's hope they complete the job.

Seriously though, does anyone else report potholes? Worthwhile doing IMHO.

I've reported several over the years. The best one was several feet deep running water at the bottom, ended up with a police car and blue lights stopping people going near it.

[craggybend]

FillThatHole.org! absolutely love it ! what makes it even better is I know my Council hates it with a passion. Our roads in the south of Denbighshire, North Wales are appalling. Its not just the potholes, its the mud, the cow sh*t, the thorns, the missing signs, the temp warning signs that I have paid for via way of Council Tax that are put out and forgotten about. The general mismanagement, by highly paid managers that are putting out lives at risk. I can and do manage to upload at least one new pothole a week and update old ones. Does not take long ten mins at the PC and its done. I now put Denbighshire County Council's mismanagement of our Public Highways on You Tube as well and cross reference with each. Sorry yes a rant ! but if we dont publish and make available the poor state of our roads, Councils like Denbighshire will continue to put our lives at risk by their neglect. Have you ever tried a compensation claim against a Council? I know Denbighshire treat ALL claims as fraudulent, they will then work with their insurance company Zuirich to avoid any payout. They use the industry tactic Defend, Deny, Delay. However if its on FillTahtHole.org it makes it so much harder for them to defend, especially with pics.
Have a look at Denbighshire in the league table section of the FillThatHole.org web site and DenbighshireCC Fails on You Tube.

[Paulatic]

FillThatHole.org! absolutely love it ! what makes it even better is I know my Council hates it with a passion. Our roads in the south of Denbighshire, North Wales are appalling. Its not just the potholes, its the mud, the cow sh*t, the thorns, the missing signs, the temp warning signs that I have paid for via way of Council Tax that are put out and forgotten about. e.

Don't get me started on temporary road signs. I should ask to see Dumfries & Galloway spending on these. Very keen to put them out but no one seems to be responsible for gathering them back up.
They fall over, the grass grows, the mower comes along, they are mangled. I would imagine each one, at supply to councils price, will be in three figures.

[old_windbag]

It does beggar belief where temporary signs are concerned. A gang put them out, then another gang should go to same location and collect them in.... but as yoou say it doesn't happen. They naturally become part of the ecosystem and get driven over by the mower. Surely they'd log a gps position when they put each one out then have that automatically saved in the system for reference by the collection team when the job is completed and signed off. Even if the sign is moved 30yds they'll find it. I have a number of flood signs on the verges, so they may know about a future catastrophe, if not, then to remove the "L" and stand them up near someones house would be fun.