Chipping ******

[661-Pete]

Yep - it's that time of the year again!

The time when we get a spell of really super weather - ergo - every local authority decides it's time to re-surface the roads.

Not 're-surface' strictly speaking: the procedure's called 'surface dressing' I believe. Where they simply sprinkle on a liberal layer of grit and rely on passing cars to press it into the tarmac.

Spoilt our ride this afternoon. We had no warning until 400 yards before the affected stretch, by which time there was no option to choose an alternative route without a lot of backtracking. And there was plenty of traffic, which, far from pressing the gravel into the road, was spraying it up all over the place.

How do others deal with this? My wife has knobbly tyres so she wasn't too badly affected, but I was on road tyres. I got off and walked.

[CREPELLO]

Geez, I know what you mean. I cycled up onto Ruabon moor from Minerva up a steady mile or so incline a few days back. A year ago they completely resurfaced it in silky smooth tarmac - what a pleasure to ride up.

Now they've covered all that lovely black stuff with piles of very course chippings and lashings of tar. Consequently a had a chipping getting stuck to the front tyre every couple of rev's and spat out at the top. Tedious. (At least the 4x4 moton did his silly wheelspin in the chippings just before I joined the road)

Why do they do this? I can understand that when the surface starts to break up it helps seal it, but it shouldn't break up in one year, unless it was defective.

Sorry, a bit ranty

[Vantage]

I've noticed especially over the last year that new road surfaces are getting a very rough kind of tarmac which does seem to cause more drag on the bikes tyres.
I hate to think of the mess my skin would be in if I took a spill on it.

[skicat]

they simply sprinkle on a liberal layer of grit and rely on passing cars to press it into the tarmac.

You should think yourself lucky they have used road materials. Down our lane they seem to have filled the potholes with liquorice judging by how long it lasted

[Psamathe]

As well as all the nightmare stones, I always feel sorry for people living along roads resurfaced in this manner as they are very noisy (car tyre noise).

Most of the roads I cycle on are single track or wide enough that two car can just pass really slowly or with one pulling up on the verge. And I find I spend most of my time riding along the left car tyre track (2ndry position ?), because middle of the lane if generally full of crud (small stones/muck/etc.).

But with the larger chippings I doubt one would get through between front tyre and mudguard. LBS fitted the mudguards (changing to thre to smaller to get safe clearance, but it is still limited.

Ian

[sjs]

Nothing to add now I know what the thread's about. I assumed it was a Clarkson/Cameron/Brooks hater ranting about Chipping Norton. Which is OK but not nearly as nice as many another Cotswold town (e.g. Chipping Campden).

[661-Pete]

Nothing to add now I know what the thread's about. I assumed it was a Clarkson/Cameron/Brooks hater ranting about Chipping Norton. Which is OK but not nearly as nice as many another Cotswold town (e.g. Chipping Campden).

You must understand: I have a habit of contriving thread titles which are designed to mislead. So now you know.

FWIW, when I encounter a stretch of newly-surface-dressed road, my usual reaction is to utter the name of a town like the ones you mentioned. With an expletive inserted between the words.

[reohn2]

I believe the correct term is ****ing chippings

[groberts]

It's bad enough having to deal with this method of 'resurfacing', insofar as possible if I know it's there I avoid the road for at least a month on a bike, though of course this is not always possible and riding over a newly laid surface is a nightmare. Notwithstanding, what really upsets me is that I have regularly seen the newly laid surface falling apart within weeks, especially on corners where the lateral force of tyres scrub away the surfacing, in time sometimes making the corner dangerous for those on bicycles; I've also seen it carried out on perfectly good road surfaces!. In other places it just falls apart without such help. What are the people / councils responsible for ordering such work playing at? I suspect they're doing it in order that their statistics show x miles resurfaced, so it's all OK and we the people who pay our taxes and their salaries are not justified in our criticism of roads. Like potholes and utility roadwork 'repairs' you have to wonder if the people responsible for our roads actually use them?

[Ayesha]

Campden.
Norton.
Sodbury.

Any else?

Chipping. By itself in Lancashire.

[mjr]

Why do they do this? I can understand that when the surface starts to break up it helps seal it, but it shouldn't break up in one year, unless it was defective.

If I remember what a highways engineer at a cycling forum told us, it needs to be done before the original surface starts to break up and if done correctly, it should extend the life of a typical high-traffic route by another 4 to 5 years. It's no good at resealing surfaces because the base coating just seeps into any holes and not enough is left to bind many chippings to the road, so the correct process is to patch the holes first, let the patches cure (week or two?) and then dress the surface.

Of course, the patches are left too long and new holes form, or many holes aren't patched, or traffic is allowed back on too soon and too fast, or simply bad weather disrupts the surface. I think I've seen surface dressing fail more often than it's succeeded, so I feel councils should either get serious about quality control or stop wasting money on it.

[Tonyf33]

we had our street re-surfaced 7 weeks ago, leaflet through door giving you all the info and a promise to sweep up all the loose chippings a short while afterwards...has it been done, has it heckers like
As a consequence we now have this build up on the entrance to the street which are inches deep and on the cul de sac section on the bend of those as well as lots of loose chippings all the way up and down.
I'm so annoyed that the council just spent tens of thousands of pounds in MArch/April (it took them over 4 weeks!)rebuilding brick walls surrounding the garage blocks just in our street alone which were total unnecessary, could have just knocked them down (there was nothing wrong with them in any case) and put green railings in their place, would make it easier to see into the blocks too from a safety/security POV.(they did it with our garage block for goodness sakes!)
These people have absolutely no idea whatsoever, they'd rather make a hash job of a road and spend 20 times more on a load of useless walls

[BE1]

[quote="Tonyf33"]we had our street re-surfaced 7 weeks ago, leaflet through door giving you all the info and a promise to sweep up all the loose chippings a short while afterwards...has it been done, has it heckers like
As a consequence we now have this build up on the entrance to the street which are inches deep and on the cul de sac section on the bend of those as well as lots of loose chippings all the way up and down.
I'm so annoyed that the council just spent tens of thousands of pounds in MArch/April (it took them over 4 weeks!)rebuilding brick walls surrounding the garage blocks just in our street alone which were total unnecessary, could have just knocked them down (there was nothing wrong with them in any case) and put green railings in their place, would make it easier to see into the blocks too from a safety/security POV.(they did it with our garage block for goodness sakes!)
These people have absolutely no idea whatsoever, they'd rather make a hash job of a road and spend 20 times more on a load of useless walls

How about a quick whipround on the street to buy some rubble bags, fill them with the chippings and return them to their righful owners, preferable in a big pile outside the office door of the Head of Highways?

[[XAP]Bob]

we had our street re-surfaced 7 weeks ago, leaflet through door giving you all the info and a promise to sweep up all the loose chippings a short while afterwards...has it been done, has it heckers like
As a consequence we now have this build up on the entrance to the street which are inches deep and on the cul de sac section on the bend of those as well as lots of loose chippings all the way up and down.
I'm so annoyed that the council just spent tens of thousands of pounds in MArch/April (it took them over 4 weeks!)rebuilding brick walls surrounding the garage blocks just in our street alone which were total unnecessary, could have just knocked them down (there was nothing wrong with them in any case) and put green railings in their place, would make it easier to see into the blocks too from a safety/security POV.(they did it with our garage block for goodness sakes!)
These people have absolutely no idea whatsoever, they'd rather make a hash job of a road and spend 20 times more on a load of useless walls

How about a quick whipround on the street to buy some rubble bags, fill them with the chippings and return them to their righful owners, preferable in a big pile outside the office door of the Head of Highways?

I've got a bag you can use, and a sack trolley...

[Cyril Haearn]

Yet again, like almost everything it seems, the problem is speeding. Faster driving wears the road more so it has to be mended sooner.

The costs are enormous, for example on single-carriageway roads where trucks do 60 instead of the permitted 40max, the wear is manymany times greater. A quick calculation in my head shows: this increases the wear by more that 100% (law of momentum).

Yet another reason for speedchecks and satellite governers!

When will we wake up to this?