Naff resurfacing

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Wed 25 Jun 2008 23:43
Naff resurfacing - aahbarnes
There is currently a team carrying out the word road resurfacing I have ever seen in our village.

A road planer removes the top few inches of tarmac and the throws the planings onto the road behind it. These are then levelled out with a roller then covered in bitumen emulsion from a tanker. This is all then covered with green gravel, the roller goes over it again, and that is it!

It is the most awful finish you can imagine, chippings all over the place sticky tar everywhere and holes in the road - some a couple of inches wide.

Is this common practice? Seems a quick and cheap way to mess up a road!
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Thu 26 Jun 2008 10:11
Naff resurfacing - bathtub tom
They recently re-surfaced the A5 through Hockliffe (just north of Dunstable). An apparently smooth surface, but you experience a pitching motion at the 40MPH limit.
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Thu 26 Jun 2008 14:12
Naff resurfacing - Hamsafar
I believe it's called 'Sustainable road repairs'.
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Thu 26 Jun 2008 14:17
Naff resurfacing - Optimist
I've just driven down a road with potholes due for repair marked with white aerosol paint.
It's been like that for about a year.

But it's just been kitted out with brand new speed humps. About three quarters of a mile is affected.

How can there be too little money to fix potholes but enough to fit speed humps?
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Thu 26 Jun 2008 15:11
Naff resurfacing - Lud
Martin Brundle's Balkan nomad buddies just back from their quick Montreal job and perhaps using up the left-over tar and metal, yer honour...
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Thu 26 Jun 2008 18:42
Naff resurfacing - Group B
Sounds like a luxury specification compared with what they do where I used to live in Derbyshire.

Every couple of years:
Spray road with hot tar; cover it with loose chippings; erect signs saying "Loose chippings - max. speed 20mph"; about 2 weeks later send a road sweeper round to pick up the excess chippings that have not stuck down and formed a berm in the middle of the road.

No road planer and no roller involved. Driving on it you get the constant hammer of stones on wheelarches, underbody, bodywork etc.

When we were kids, in hot weather much fun was had at the side of the road playing with the melted tar with old lolly sticks. Mum would then play hell, and use lard to get it off our hands.

Edited by Rich 9-3 on 26/06/2008 at 18:47

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Thu 26 Jun 2008 19:21
Naff resurfacing - Group B
Re: the hot bitumen/chippings treatment is called 'surface dressing' and is still in widespread use for minor roads, because it is cheap.
They will resort to planing if the road surface is uneven, but they can't afford to lay new bituminous macadam.

Far more than you ever wanted to know about surface dressing:
snipurl.com/2pdlz [www_highwaysmaintenance_com]


;o)
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Thu 26 Jun 2008 20:07
Naff resurfacing - Bromptonaut
Northants technique seems to just spray on some sort of tar mix and possibly a few chippings. Used particularly where the edges of lanes are crumbling.

OK for a month or so then it deforms into a washboard profile. No fun in a car and murder on two wheels.

Report it to street doctor and after a few chases they apply another layer of gunk in worst places and erect signs warning of uneven surface.

Edited by Bromptonaut on 26/06/2008 at 20:09

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Thu 26 Jun 2008 21:22
Naff resurfacing - Cymrogwyllt
it's used on A roads around here. Do they have shares in paint shops?
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Thu 26 Jun 2008 21:56
Naff resurfacing - PhilW
Just done in our village on a very potholed section of road with loads of manhole covers - only difference it has made is to change colour of potholes - they are still there, but the manhole covers are now a further cm or so below general surface to add to the 4 cm they were before (used same technique for many years). Pointless waste of money - but probably ensures that they get a decent amount of money next year to do the same. Do they have shares in shock absorber companies as well as paint cos?
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