Bad road surfaces and tragedies

[eileithyia]

Sadly yesterday we heard the news that a cycling friend, got his front wheel stuck in a road fissure throwing him from the bike, sadly he did not survive the injuries sustained....
At 80+ Harry Colledge was a long term member of Cleveleys CC, a gentleman and a friend. RIP Harry.
But this just shows that we all need to be careful and watchful out there regarding the state of our roads, and report those pot holes.

[Bonefishblues]

I'm sorry to hear about your friend's death. A big issue around here is failing road surfaces (HS2/EWR construction traffic being the main cause) which mean that the entire carriageway cracks longitudinally*. Can be a real issue even for the wary.

*Which OCC strays with its Dragon machine from time to time as some sort of placebo - they form a bridge over the crack for a while, but aren't much use on cracks which are often many inches/feet deep.
https://news.oxfordshire.gov.uk/dragon- ... -the-road/

[simonineaston]

Oh dear... awful news. Thanks for thinking of us other cyclists and the warning.

[peetee]

A timely warning indeed. I drove along some unfamiliar local roads recently and subjected my car suspension to an awful battering in the process. I’m somewhat glad I drove that way first as certain rough sections would have been unavoidable on my bike and, as they were on blind bends where one would have to trust the judgement of drivers of following vehicles, there would have been an element of risk regardless of how careful I was.

[TrevA]

I’ve noticed the problem has got worse recently, possibly due to the very hot weather of last summer, causing ground movement under the tarmac. There are some roads near me that seems particularly prone to road fissures, due to the camber of the road and there being no kerb, which causes “surface creep” over time. One road in particular was completely resurfaced and started cracking again within 18 months.

RIP Harry.

[Chris Jeggo]

I have read that longitudinal cracking usually indicates a structural inadequacy rather than surface creep. It is often accompanied by a good ditch nearby. The road's ambition to respond to gravity is not sufficiently resisted by its structure and is assisted by the passage of vehicles heavier than designed for.

One road in particular was completely resurfaced and started cracking again within 18 months.

That is definitely structural.

[Vorpal]

I'm sorry for your loss. Condolences to his friends & family.

Is the family taking any action against the roads authority?

[Mike Sales]

I have read that longitudinal cracking usually indicates a structural inadequacy rather than surface creep. It is often accompanied by a good ditch nearby. The road's ambition to respond to gravity is not sufficiently resisted by its structure and is assisted by the passage of vehicles heavier than designed for.

One road in particular was completely resurfaced and started cracking again within 18 months.

That is definitely structural.

What is missing in the debate about funding road maintenance however, is the recognition that heavy lorries cause far more damage to foundations and structures of roads than cars. Yet they are only cover 11 per cent of their road infrastructure costs, despite what the Freight Transport Association claims. The standard 44 tonne HGV, which is the industry workhorse, causes 136,000 times more damage to road infrastructure than a Ford Focus because the damaging power rises exponentially as weight increases – a phenomenon known as the ‘Generalised Fourth Power Law’. 

Local and urban roads, unlike motorways, are not built to sustain the large volume of heavy goods now traffic using them. And yet, the Road Haulage Association complains that its lorries are being damaged by the existing poor state of local roads – a phenomenon, for which they are largely responsible.

HGVs only cover one ninth of their road damage costs.

When the full costs of HGVs are taken into account that equates to a £6bn a year taxpayer subsidy.

When the full costs of HGVs are taken ... subsidy.

More unallocated external costs.
The damage has to be paid for to maintain the public highway.

[roubaixtuesday]

That's absolutely awful, condolences to all who knew him.

Local press report: https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news ... nt-3972877

[thirdcrank]

Speaking generally, this is a reminder to report road defects and ensure the report is properly logged. Highway authority budgets are squeezed and raided from all sides, but they cannot be aware of everything no matter how good their inspection regime. Once alerted of a defect, they cannot ignore it.

[xerxes]

I presume it's this incident - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-l ... e-64150127

I wonder if there is any redress from the local council for incidents such as this? I believe councils will compensate cyclists for damage to bikes from potholes. So does the same apply to death or injury?

[thirdcrank]

I presume it's this incident - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-l ... e-64150127

I wonder if there is any redress from the local council for incidents such as this? I believe councils will compensate cyclists for damage to bikes from potholes. So does the same apply to death or injury?

In the very simplest terms, those responsible for maintaining the road may be liable to pay compo for negligence if they don't. But, they may have a defence under the Highways Act, if have a reasonable inspection regime for the road in question. That's a defence against not finding a defect immediately, not against not taking action when they had been alerted to the defect. Which is why I wrote defects should be reported. It's a complicated subject with loads of case law.

One sad recurring bit of news is that the budgets for compo payouts tend to exceed the repair budgets

[Bonefishblues]

From personal experience claims are routinely resisted. I got there in the end though...

[Chris Jeggo]

.... the damaging power rises exponentially as weight increases – a phenomenon known as the ‘Generalised Fourth Power Law’. 

....

An exponential increase is fundamentally different from a power law increase. Whoever wrote the piece Mike Sales quotes displayed their technical ignorance by using a technical term incorrectly.

[Cugel]

The road that killed that lad is one of many similar roads out on The Fylde - a large very flat area between the rivers Lune and Ribble, through which also runs the Wyre. Most of this huge area is only a metre or two above sea level, with many of the roads built along an artificially created raised strip above the surrounding often very wet countryside.

The stuffs making up the raised strips and the roads atop them have a tendency to migrate sideways, as well as to subside, down the slope of a metre or two towards the wet fields. This causes the tarmac atop the sideways-sliding underpinnings to spread, eventually cracking open into fissures an inch or two wide and several yards long. In the worst spots, the whole road can become a minefield of such cracks, edge-to-edge.

Some years ago there were road races held in this area and it was a necessary added skill to both warn followers of such fissured road space coming up and to adopt the best line one could for others to follow to avoid the tyre-grabbing tarmac grins. Crashes occurred nevertheless.

There came a period, maybe 25-30 years ago, when the road-mending attempted to prevent the sideways slippages by putting (at great expense) a plastic membrane web of material between the raised road bank of underpinning hard core and the tarmac topping. it did slow the cracking process but didn't prevent it. In fact, it made it worse in some cases by stopping the tarmac cracks forming as the underpinning slipped away .... until the membrane itself snapped or degraded and the tarmac on top would spring apart "overnight" into even wider cracks.

I've ridden thousands of miles over those roads, for leisure, racing and commuting purposes (Lancaster to Lytham St Annes & back for work). It required an eagle eye for every yard; and made it unwise to ride them at night, even with superlights.

They are hard to fix permanently, those roads, because of their design as a narrow strip of tarmac on a raised bed of hardcore on top of mud that often gets saturated but also dries out a lot in summer. They're built down to a price and the Lancashire road mending is notorious for being done at the cheapest possible price by road menders who seem unable to fix the fundamental issue with them (or any other Lancashire road).

Cugel