road surfaces after the winter

[Paulatic]

My own observations are things are as bad as ever in these parts.
No doubt the weight of wagons and tractors especially when the frost is coming out of the ground makes them bend.
Just discussing this locally and a road near me was fully repaired and drains cleaned and working less than 12 months ago. The last few months some of the drains are now blocked water runs and collects in the usual places and lo and behold all the pot holes have reappeared. Back to square one.
What happened to building roads with a camber?
Drains were great 50 yrs ago when a local man knew them all and kept them clear. Nowadays we’d probably be better off with open storm drains.
It’s so frustrating to see repairs done and then in short order things are bad again. Often it can be other utilities which come through and destroy earlier good work. I’m so pleased I’m not in charge of the roads department it must be a constant headache and thankless task.

[RickH]

Maybe we could begin to draw more attention to the problem,there must be many ways of doing so.

http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/16040 ... en_up_town

There have been people being even more creative previously & creating whole miniature gardens - try a Google image search on "pothole gardens" (life is too short to work out which bits of the link are the essential bits if I copy & paste it)

[Username]

Maybe we could begin to draw more attention to the problem,there must be many ways of doing so.

http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/16040 ... en_up_town

There have been people being even more creative previously & creating whole miniature gardens - try a Google image search on "pothole gardens" (life is too short to work out which bits of the link are the essential bits if I copy & paste it)

Theres also the wanksy thing too.

[Flinders]

In my bit of Staffs the roads are worse than they have been since I came here nearly 30 years ago. Gradual deterioration, due to tory council cutbacks for years (whilst they boasted about 'not putting up the rates') made worse by central government cuts to LAs, and outsourced and rubbish maintenance.
Saw some pothole filling locally at the end of last year- one bloke in lorry smoking, two filling hole with shovels with too much tarmac. Left big humps which are, unsurprisingly, nasty to ride over and are now breaking up. Potholes here are regularly inches deep, sharp edged, and down to the hardcore, something I'd never have seen years ago. One was very bad, at a junction, inches deep, and large, but council said it wasn't big enough. Some local put some bits of concrete in it- which helped cars, but made it worse for bikes. Even then the bits of concrete got levered out by passing vehicles. Eventually it got so bad and they were nagged about it so much they fixed it. Another bad one put three cyclists into hospital in as many weeks, one seriously hurt, the others still badly damaged, after the first one they didn't even fence it off until it was mended, hence the second two, and I have no doubt there were others that just didn't end up in ambulances en route to the trauma unit. The council couldn't give the proverbial.

Our tarmac pavements have been a mess for a decade, and are now so lethal even I took a purler on them recently, but I was able to stop myself, they have tipped at least 2 people out of wheelchairs, and we have a lot of elderly people here who have to use the pavement to get to the buses -those we have left. Council say 'on the list' but do plenty of far less bad stuff all the time. I guess it's about where councillors live. Can't see any other reason.

[Roadster]

Well said, Flinders. All this austerity business is no joke when it comes to the roads - more and more cyclists are being seriously injured and even killed as a result, with no end to the situation in sight. Before spending billions of pounds on infrastructure for the future, they should fix the appalling state of the existing road network first.

[MikeF]

The biggest damage to roads is caused by utilities diggings. The reinstatement is usually extremely poor leaving the councils to receive the blame for the damage and carry out repair. Utilities should reinstate by complete resurfacing not shoddy trench filling that is the norm.

A main road near here was resurfaced a year or so ago to quite a high standard. A gas company dug it up recently but afterwards the whole road was completely resurfaced. It looks as it did before the trench was dug. However it's the only road that I know that has been done like that.

[eileithyia]

Well the potholes are nicely covered up now

[reohn2]

Well the potholes are nicely covered up now

Nature has a way of healing itself

[reohn2]

Theres also the wanksy thing too.

That sounds like a specifically male way of dealing with the problem

[eileithyia]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-fil ... holes.html

[reohn2]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/11570595/Meet-the-man-using-penises-to-fill-potholes.html

Oo,err!
I thought it was a typo

[tykeboy2003]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/11570595/Meet-the-man-using-penises-to-fill-potholes.html

Absolutely brilliant!

It's obviously got to the point now where you have to be explicitly rude to get councils to act. Can anyone suggest anything to get my council to sort out the parking on my street?

[MikeF]

The spokesperson added: “We urge the perpetrator to stop defacing the roads immediately, and ask anyone who sees this sort of criminal damage being carried out to report it to the police and the council.”

There's nothing like a bit of paint for carrying out criminal damage to a road.

[eileithyia]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/11570595/Meet-the-man-using-penises-to-fill-potholes.html

Oo,err!
I thought it was a typo

Yes, wasn't sure if you had seen related articles

I quite like the comment that they have to remove the graffiti / paintwork.... as despite filling the pothole, the errr offending paintwork can still be clearly seen.

[mjr]

The biggest damage to roads is caused by utilities diggings. The reinstatement is usually extremely poor leaving the councils to receive the blame for the damage and carry out repair. Utilities should reinstate by complete resurfacing not shoddy trench filling that is the norm.

It's right that councils receive the blame for the damage because they (their Street Works Officers) are responsible for making the utilities reinstate the surface properly. If the council officer accepts crap, then that's their responsibility.

The growing weight of vehicles (in both numbers and individual vehicle weights) are another great reason for dedicated cycleways. When built properly (3m wide, capable of taking emergency vehicles in, er, emergencies), cycleways can last decades between resurfacings with minimal maintenance like keeping the wayside drainage channels clear of vegetation - however, we are mostly begrudged even this minimal maintenance at the moment, as the budget is hogged by fixing motorists' damage to carriageways. It's like taking stuff from those who don't need much and using it to help feed the fat cats.