Perhaps someone in the biz can throw some light on the following.
It seems to me that you very rarely encounter road repairs -- pot-hole patches, larger trench coverings, larger patches -- that are flush with the road surface. Hence, every journey is punctuated at random by lumps and bumps, no matter how good your car's ride is.
Is this:
* A British problem alone?
* Because of sloppy workmanship?
* Because the repair surface must be left proud of the road surface to allow for settlement?
* Because that's the way it's always been done and no-one has thought hard about it?
* Because no-one complains?
* Other?
|
Our road has just had extensive repairs during which they dug parts out to a depth of several inches. The result is quite satisfactory so perhaps the depth dug out holds a clue. Maybe it's the shallower repairs that end up with a bump. Mind you, the time estimate was 3 days but it took 7 days during which time the road was officially closed from both directions. At one point it was definitely closed at one end when it was dug out 6" over the full width of the road. Trucks went over it but car drivers (including me) declined!
--
L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
|
|
|
No doubt this kind of work is lucrative for the private companies who have the contracts to do it. I would imagine it's done badly here for the same reasons as most other privatised services are rubbish - profit motive overrides all else, and complaints procedures are lengthy and difficult to win. Look at the resurfacing of the Avonmouth bidge on the M5 for a good example. A contractor guilty of health and safety breaches so bad they killed several of their workers, and who completed a job so poor that it now needs doing again. I hope you all enjoyed the contraflows for the last 5 years...
Bristol's repairs seem to be carried out by a company I'd be happy to name, but won't. Never mind roads - they'd struggle to fill in a form. Again, widespread health and safety breaches or dangerously unprotected sites, employees with no eye or ear protection etc., and job which looks like it was done by gypsies "with some tarmac left over from another job". And for this I pay?
Germany mostly does this kind of thing in-house. Properly trained, paid, equipped employees, with some kind of institutional quality control and set standards. And please don't tell me fixing the roads privately is more efficient. I challenge you to look carefully at the next roadworks you see: how many different companies are involved in the work and the hire of all the equipment? I counted 8 at a small road repair on a residential back street. They all have to make a profit somehow!
|
What road repairs? Where?
I never see any. I'm too busy avoiding the potholes.
|
|
Try the A41 around Bicester. Its driving me nuts.
|
|
On my last trip to France I noticed how poor some of the roads were.
|
|
|
Mark,
Hope you have noticed that they are about to start on the A34 between Oxford and Bicester
I.
|
Mark, Hope you have noticed that they are about to start on the A34 between Oxford and Bicester I.
Oh joy, looks like my trips to Buckingham and Milton Keynes are going to get fun. Will have to find another route.
|
|
|
>>about to start on the A34 between Oxford and Bicester
No I hadn't, but I'm not sure if I care. About the A34 I most certainly don't, but it depends if there is a potential rat-run out through my village, which there just might be.
|
The A34 itself doesnt bother me, but the potential tailbacks will affect the Peartree roundabout which I do have to cross on the A44. The county council are also warning of rush hour backlogs along the A34 and the potential for back lane rat runs.
StarGazer
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A lot of it will depend on why the repair has been done. The various Streetworks Acts cover all filling in of holes and they do dictate the amount by which a new top layer can vary in height from the surrounding road surface. For "final" finish, it's quite small and should produce no sensation of "bump" when driving over (assuming you have functional suspension).
One of the major bump problems arising when a temporary backfill has been done. This is where the hole has been dug, some of the work has been done but the hole has to be filled in for the work to be recommenced at a later date. Sometimes this happens for operational reasons, sometimes it's because the local council insist on the road/lane closure being lifted (eg, over a weekend/holiday period).
Because it's impossible for a contractor to produce the compacting effect of heavy traffic on the material in the hole, it has to be overfilled, resulting in a initial bump. Over time, the effect of vehicles driving over this surface will press down and bring the surface level in line with the rest of the surrounding road.
The trick is judging how much filler material is needed - too much and a permanent hump arises, too little and a hollow is created. A good and competent contractor will recheck any filled excavations a while after finishing to check that the settle has gone to plan. A cowboy won't.
The local authority (for most roads) has a duty to check works carried out and should notify the contractor of any defective reinstatements - if necessary, the council should carry out reinstatement and bill the contractor.
So laziness on the parts of several people results in long-term bumpy roads.
|
A whole road got dug up and resurfaced in Congleton a couple of months ago. It's due to be repeated due to the abysmal job the contractors did of it. It was bumpier when they'd finished than when they started.
It wasn't going to be re-done,a s the council couldn't afford, but they've managed to corner the firm into repeating it as an unacceptable quality job.
Of course, the company won't be getting paid for this 2nd go, so I'm guessing they'll do it as cheaply and quickly as humanly possible. It'll end up smoother, but with a paper thin layer that's worn away within a year or two.
|
But the best ever road repair I've seen was on the A34 between Congleton and Manchester. There was a pothole which they tried to fill in on two occasions, but both times the tarmac they'd placed quickly sunk until the pothole was exactly as big as before.
The solution was simple and obvious. They didn't just fill in the hole, they left a 3" lump of tarmac sitting out of it, which everyone now has to dodge around.
Having said that, the lorries obviously still hit it, it's almost back down to the level of the rest of the road now.
|
People of a certain age will remember things called steam-rollers - they were used for flattening new road surfaces and for squashing the loose chippings into the tarmac. Now it's self-service - they dump the chippings vaguely on the road and we spray them around all over the place, until eventually most find their way into the gutters.
|
A main road close to me (plus some minor ones) were resurfaced a few weeks ago with the abominable (cheap) method of laying small stones on tar(?).
Apart from the damage to cars for weeks afterwards from stone chippings, several stretches of the main road surface have already worn bare.
As a result the contracters agreed to redo the sections concerned, but we are still waiting after three or four weeks.
One wonders at the council's quality control over such schemes....
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
|
|
|
People of a certain age will remember things called steam-rollers
The road rollers they used on our road recently were only about half the length and height of a steam roller but they seemed to do a good job. From the sound they emitted I would guess they had some sort of vibrating mechanism built into them.
--
L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
|
Duchess, I'm genuinely impressed with your knowledge of tarmac. If ever I need to have my drive re-done you are definitely the person I shall approach for advice!
--
L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
|
|
|
|
People of a certain age will remember things called steam-rollers -
You mean they didn't just chuck a shovelfull of tarmac ina hole and then run it over with the lorry's tyre?
|
|
|
Now it's self-service - they dump the chippings vaguely on the road and we spray them around all over the place
Including, for some of us, during our first ever test drive of a 911.
Have you ever seen a Porsche salesman cry?
|
|
|
|
|
