An answer to potholes

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
james01
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Re: An answer to potholes

Post by james01 »

pwa wrote:Just to balance out the posts on potholes, I have to say that in my area some of the lanes that have been badly surfaced over the 20 years I have been using them have been completely resurfaced over the last year, and it has been done to a good standard. Fifty metres from my home is NCN88 (Wick, Vale of Glamorgan), which is a minor road and has a lovely, smooth surface all the way down to the next village of Broughton, about 600 metres away. There are other lanes with poor surfaces nearby, but its good to celebrate the good things that happen.
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Let's hope it's a good quality resurface. Call me cynical but I've rejoiced in some billiard-table smooth road resurfacings over the years only to realise after a couple of years that they were cheap sprayovers which soon fell apart.
pwa
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Re: An answer to potholes

Post by pwa »

James, I share your scepticism about resurfaced roads, but the local improvements I mentioned are good. The old surface was ground down flat (with raised manholes, etc) before several new layers of properly rolled tarmac were laid! Where the money came from I don't know.
Manc33
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Re: An answer to potholes

Post by Manc33 »

They want it so when it gets repaired it all comes up again.

In their boardroom they will just call this "repeat sales".

"But its the Government, they don't do that"

Nope, but they will just shroud it all in legalese so the end result is... they are doing that.

Apply to all, the pharmaceutical industry for starters. Develop two pills side by side, one causes a side effect and gets released, the other alleviates the side effect of the first but is released 6 months later. Why sell one if you can sell two. Gwen Olsen was the one that came out with this. It figures, anyone making money is doing just that, making money. Not much use actually fixing anything properly like roads, or curing anyone, when you can perpetually treat them. There's a reason its called "practicing" medicine. Meanwhile the Chinese have had roots and herbs that cure everything for centuries. No money in it though if you can just grow it yourself.

We're living in the dark ages folks, take a look around. We have for some reason handed our minds over to "experts" and they exploiting that fact.
We'll always be together, together on electric bikes.
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mjr
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Re: An answer to potholes

Post by mjr »

Manc33 wrote:They want it so when it gets repaired it all comes up again.

In their boardroom they will just call this "repeat sales".

"But its the Government, they don't do that"

Actually, pothole-filling is put out to contract in most places, so it's not the government... the highways officers have been cut back so far that councils seem unable to manage the contractors properly.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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Psamathe
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Re: An answer to potholes

Post by Psamathe »

mjr wrote:
Manc33 wrote:They want it so when it gets repaired it all comes up again.

In their boardroom they will just call this "repeat sales".

"But its the Government, they don't do that"

Actually, pothole-filling is put out to contract in most places, so it's not the government... the highways officers have been cut back so far that councils seem unable to manage the contractors properly.

I had assumed a reasonable amount of the repairs were contracted out, but over the last year+ I've seen quite a few repairs being carried out and it's always been council vehicles and no private companies.

I had wondered why they bother to paint round some of the potholes. I reported a about 5 on one stretch of road all requiring moderately urgent repair. Then all but one got painted round and all but one then all the painted ones got repaired - leaving the unpainted one (quite dangerous) un-repaired. Still un-repaired. I wondered if painted holes are for contracted out repairs and the contractor will only do what is in the contract and whereas council will just repair the road. Though I have no idea how it works - just my guesswork there.

Ian
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mjr
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Re: An answer to potholes

Post by mjr »

I think there's two possibilities if this is Norfolk: one is that some contractors' vans are painted with "[name] working for NORFOLK COUNTY COUNCIL", the other is that City Works (which I think is a wholly owned services company that I don't know how Norwich City Council kept) may be the highways contractor in some of the county.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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nez
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Re: An answer to potholes

Post by nez »

I was stopped near Kersey recently by a very polite man in a council van who was after directions. He admitted to me he was surveying the local stretch of the south Suffolk cycle route for repairs. So good for him, or the council or sustrans. He may have been lost but he was on good work.
Last edited by nez on 8 May 2015, 11:03pm, edited 1 time in total.
EddyP
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Joined: 21 Aug 2013, 2:04pm

Re: An answer to potholes

Post by EddyP »

This is brilliant!
Ed
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