E petition surfacing redressing

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Mark1978
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Re: E petition surfacing redressing

Post by Mark1978 »

Isn't the main issue that councils have a yearly budget for repairs. So it doesn't matter that the repair is substandard and they'll have to do it again next year as long as it's done cheaply this year.
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bigjim
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Re: E petition surfacing redressing

Post by bigjim »

Got me thinking readin this. There is a constant plethora of roadworks around here. I can't remember ever seeing a steamroller. Yea I know they aren't steam anymore [mores the pity]. I may have seen one of those tiny hand roller things but not the proper jobbie. Does the real thing exist any more or do they not roll these days?
pete75
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Re: E petition surfacing redressing

Post by pete75 »

Mark1978 wrote:Isn't the main issue that councils have a yearly budget for repairs. So it doesn't matter that the repair is substandard and they'll have to do it again next year as long as it's done cheaply this year.


I think the major problem is that most of the repair work has been contracted out to private companies, often purely for ideological reasons. Like most private companies their own loyalty is to the bottom line and their shareholders. They get paid for doing a repair and don't want it to be permanent because they'll get paid the next time they go out and do it. I say this from the experience of working for a local authority for quite a while and observing the effects of several outsourced contracts.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
RichardPH
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Re: E petition surfacing redressing

Post by RichardPH »

bigjim wrote:Got me thinking readin this. There is a constant plethora of roadworks around here. I can't remember ever seeing a steamroller. Yea I know they aren't steam anymore [mores the pity]. I may have seen one of those tiny hand roller things but not the proper jobbie. Does the real thing exist any more or do they not roll these days?


In the case of surface dressing the wheels of the traffic do the job of the road roller over a period of time. That's why there's always a gap between doing the initial treatment and re-applying the road markings some time later. Cheap and really a little bit nasty all round, but the money only goes so far.

Machine laid tarmac presumably has a roller in the leviathan somewhere.
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bigjim
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Re: E petition surfacing redressing

Post by bigjim »

experience of working for a local authority for quite a while and observing the effects of several outsourced contracts.

My experience of a local authority is they have their favourites that constantly get the work. There is a list of preferred contractors but it seems to be a secret thing. I could never get a peep at it. I worked with local business and they constantly voiced their frustration at not being able to be included on "The List".
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: E petition surfacing redressing

Post by [XAP]Bob »

After the initial surface dressing operation and first vacuum-sweep of loose chippings, the roads are swept at seven days and six-week intervals to ensure safety of all road users. Typically 10% of chippings are swept up over the six-week period and recycled for more surface dressing work on other less busy rural roads to ensure no materials are wasted.


That's from my local council.

Although I know of roads which had piles of gravel for months.
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Flinders
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Re: E petition surfacing redressing

Post by Flinders »

[XAP]Bob wrote:
After the initial surface dressing operation and first vacuum-sweep of loose chippings, the roads are swept at seven days and six-week intervals to ensure safety of all road users. Typically 10% of chippings are swept up over the six-week period and recycled for more surface dressing work on other less busy rural roads to ensure no materials are wasted.


That's from my local council.

Although I know of roads which had piles of gravel for months.


A section of main road in a nearby village was done last year- there were piles of chippings all across the road and on the pavements for weeks, the gutters were worse, they must have been at least 2" deep with chippings a foot or more out into the road, and even cars and lorries were skidding when trying to brake for the mini roundabout at the end of the stretch of chippings (it isn't possible for traffic to be going anything other than very slowly there to start with due to double parking, so they weren't going fast). it would have been lethal for a bike. It was also done on top of a badly patched, and in some places unpatched but terrible, surface with dips, holes and cracks everywhere. As soon as the chippings got back to vaguely safe proportions, the surface was cracking and breaking up again, but with a think layer of chippings all over the pavement and road to add to the woe.

Further to my post above, they've just given less than 24 hours notice that they're doing my road. I cannot see a single crack or hole anywhere on it. However, roads nearby have grass growing up the middle it's so long since they were cleaned, and have surfaces with huge and deep potholes, huge cracks, and parts where the broken up edges meet the piles of mud, gravel clay and potholes working out from the middle, especially where there are overhanging trees, leaving nowhere safe even for a narrow cycle tyre to pass. Drainage is so bad that even now there are puddles on some of them. No plans to do anything about any of that that we know of.

It's annoying when drivers say they want us off main roads onto side-roads, but the side roads are dangerous or, in some cases when it has rained, impassable.
pete75
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Re: E petition surfacing redressing

Post by pete75 »

iviehoff wrote:
cheesypeeps wrote:Hi
Please sign this petition.
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/67408
I nearly came off my road bike the other week as there had been no attempt at all to sweep away the loose stones. Like riding on marbles.

Sadly your petition is based upon a misunderstanding of what surface dressing is and what it is for. I suggest you delete it, because no one will take any notice of a petition founded upon such misunderstandings, and will find them very easy to bat off. We actually need more surface dressing, not less. But clearly we need it to be done properly and safely.

Surface dressing is not resurfacing, cheap or otherwise. It is a life-extension technique for the existing road surface. It is a cost-effective and low carbon road maintenance technique. A lot less of it has been done of late, because of budget restrictions, and this has been a false economy, because it has resulted in road surfaces breaking up and potholing. Potholes are terrible for cyclists, and when you next see a badly potholed road, you can think "if only they'd done a surface dressing in time, this wouldn't have happened."

As I said, what we need is for surface dressing to be done properly and safely. But I would caution against simply demanding things unless you have an idea how they can be practically and effectively delivered. Ask yourself, exactly what legal change do you have in mind that would achieve this. You can say, that's for them to say, but actually it isn't. It is easy for them to say that there isn't a practical adjustment and bat your demands off, unless you actually have something in mind and some evidence that it works well.


I think it's you who is sadly mistaken. Surface dressing seems to be used INSTEAD of resurfacing. All the potholes, ridges, imperfections, minor bumps etc are still there after the dressing has been done. Many of the potholes are because roads have been dressed time and again when they really needed resurfacing.
What we need is more resurfacing and less surface dressing.
The Bridport gravel used for surface dressing is also about the worst surface for creating vehicle tyre noise.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
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