Cycling UK Forum

Davesport wrote:The roads in East Lothian are great for cycling on but there's a growing number of big potholes and serious damage. I've been reporting these a few at a time using the CTC App. The first of these was three weeks ago. A displaced catseye leaving a hole 500 by 300 by over a 100 mm deep. I checked yesterday and it's exactly the same. Looking at the follow up page the it gives a road location and a grid reference of "NT 46366 63286" I can't get google maps or Google Earth to locate this on their mapping.
t
Two questions, is the grid reference going to be of any use to those trying to locate the hole & how long is it fair to give the council to fix this.

Thanks in advance, Dave.

Lets assume you are the sort of person who might just break your windscreen to get a cheap replacement.Now take a hand axe and deliver a sharp blow to your old wheel.Take a picture and claim off the council.They may shift their backsides to fix the hole.Lets be clear here,this is an entirely hypothetical scenario,not to be recommended ,no,not at all,never,no.God forbid,I,m not encouraging this sort of thing,of course not----what do you take me for.

cyclop wrote:

Davesport wrote:The roads in East Lothian are great for cycling on but there's a growing number of big potholes and serious damage. I've been reporting these a few at a time using the CTC App. The first of these was three weeks ago. A displaced catseye leaving a hole 500 by 300 by over a 100 mm deep. I checked yesterday and it's exactly the same. Looking at the follow up page the it gives a road location and a grid reference of "NT 46366 63286" I can't get google maps or Google Earth to locate this on their mapping.
t
Two questions, is the grid reference going to be of any use to those trying to locate the hole & how long is it fair to give the council to fix this.

Thanks in advance, Dave.

Lets assume you are the sort of person who might just break your windscreen to get a cheap replacement.Now take a hand axe and deliver a sharp blow to your old wheel.Take a picture and claim off the council.They may shift their backsides to fix the hole.Lets be clear here,this is an entirely hypothetical scenario,not to be recommended ,no,not at all,never,no.God forbid,I,m not encouraging this sort of thing,of course not----what do you take me for.

Might get the hole fixed, but I'm pretty confident they won't pay out for the wheel. My Sister had a wheel and tyre wrecked (car was only 4 days old!) when encountering a pothole in the dark. Council had white-marked it but still wouldn't accept responsibility! She saw a solicitor who sent the Council a letter, and his follow-up was that it was odds on that the Council wouldn't have to pay. Cost to her was c£300 for new wheel/tyre.

gaz wrote:

gaz wrote:

Reported 29 June 2012. The hole's still not fixed.

Work in progress. IMG_20191125_094911.jpg

Looks like 7 years is the answer.

gaz wrote:

gaz wrote:

Reported 29 June 2012. The hole's still not fixed.

Work in progress. IMG_20191125_094911.jpg

Is that Cooling?

Wanksy?

http://wanksy.mycindr.com/

I think there's a fair bit of difference between a simple pothole and subsidence. A pothole is caused by the top layer(s) of tarmac have coming adrift, usually started by water getting into a small crack and freezing. This is often around a drain cover or similar. But if the underlying road bed is sound, a pothole can be filled (as someone says above) in 10 minutes and doesn't require major road works. OTOH if the whole edge of the road is subsiding (prefaced by the sort of crack shown in the photo above) then the road (or at least one lane) may need closing for days while major structural work is undertaken.

I'm still trying to get my head around all this ...

I lived in South Africa, and the roads in my village/suburb never ever had potholes .... we lived in the same house for over 20 years and not once did they have to repair potholes

the main roads in the city never had potholes either .... weather was similar to Cambridge (lots of wet it rainy season, and -5 degrees + during winter)...

things there have changed now as they are using cheaper methods of repairing roads, so potholes are all over the place

I think that the companies here in the UK deliberately use crappy tar so as to stay in business

same goes for countries such as Germany .... roads are good with very few potholes and similar weather and traffic

dim wrote:I'm still trying to get my head around all this ...
....
I think that the companies here in the UK deliberately use crappy tar so as to stay in business
same goes for countries such as Germany .... roads are good with very few potholes and similar weather and traffic

Depends on the local council and what they do. I cyced round the Isle of Wight in October, and was amazed by the quality of the road surface - lovely smooth tarmac, not a pothole anywhere. Shows what can be done.

.

fastpedaller wrote:

cyclop wrote:

Davesport wrote:The roads in East Lothian are great for cycling on but there's a growing number of big potholes and serious damage. I've been reporting these a few at a time using the CTC App. The first of these was three weeks ago. A displaced catseye leaving a hole 500 by 300 by over a 100 mm deep. I checked yesterday and it's exactly the same. Looking at the follow up page the it gives a road location and a grid reference of "NT 46366 63286" I can't get google maps or Google Earth to locate this on their mapping.
t
Two questions, is the grid reference going to be of any use to those trying to locate the hole & how long is it fair to give the council to fix this.

Thanks in advance, Dave.

Lets assume you are the sort of person who might just break your windscreen to get a cheap replacement.Now take a hand axe and deliver a sharp blow to your old wheel.Take a picture and claim off the council.They may shift their backsides to fix the hole.Lets be clear here,this is an entirely hypothetical scenario,not to be recommended ,no,not at all,never,no.God forbid,I,m not encouraging this sort of thing,of course not----what do you take me for.

Might get the hole fixed, but I'm pretty confident they won't pay out for the wheel. My Sister had a wheel and tyre wrecked (car was only 4 days old!) when encountering a pothole in the dark. Council had white-marked it but still wouldn't accept responsibility! She saw a solicitor who sent the Council a letter, and his follow-up was that it was odds on that the Council wouldn't have to pay. Cost to her was c£300 for new wheel/tyre.

Legally if a pothole has been reported to the local authorities then they(or whoever maintains that section of road) are liable for any damages arising from it afterwards (even if they have marked it).
I.e. tyres, wheels, Suspension, Personal injuries.
They will deny liability.
Legal advice and small claims court are your friends.

P.S.
To be classed as a pothole it has to be more that 38mm deep, so if it's just the top surface that's broken it's not a pothole.

The deeper pot holes I see on my route to work are bodged by cowboy repairer's, they last 3 or 4 weeks before becoming even larger with more road spoil eroding. Anything filled with water I avoid as sometimes I don't know if it is a surface puddle or a life/death experience about to happen.

hemo wrote:The deeper pot holes I see on my route to work are bodged by cowboy repairer's, they last 3 or 4 weeks before becoming even larger with more road spoil eroding.

His seems to be a growing problem in most areas with the occasional good repair here and there.It seems a case of very limited budget meaning a minimal fix by the cheapest means,with some of the repairs I've witnessed locally being truly appalling.
Locally the council resurfaced a tight right angle bend near where I live and did a good job,only trouble is they stopped 4m(paced out)of four more ptholes and some broken surface and stopped the resurfacing in the middle of a 60cm round pothole half resurfaced,half hole The machinery and men are onnthe job why not do a little more and make a proper job of it?

Anything filled with water I avoid as sometimes I don't know if it is a surface puddle or a life/death experience about to happen.

I never trust water fill potholes,as you rightly say you never know what hidden.

They are appalling in Derbyshire. Worse than they've ever been. Austerity +tory district council. We wondered about highlighting them in blue spray paint and putting up sign boards "Vote Conservative, vote for potholes"
PS and closed public lavs!

I reported a hum-dinger of a hole near Norwich Airport before Christmas, and they sent me an update saying it had been fixed a few days ago - when my Wife drove along the road the next day the car in front nearly disappeared, as they clearly hadn't fixed it. I tried to log into my 'account' on their website to update their update, but it wouldn't let me in, just telling me to create a new password, which I did 5 times and still couldn't progress - deliberate software to stop negative comments? or am I getting paranoid.

wearwell wrote:They are appalling in Derbyshire..... +tory district council.:

Hmm, unsual for a District Council to have responsibility for repairing pot holes . Maybe the EU should be blamed?