The state of the roads.

[T4tomo]

Since it's a subject that affects all cyclists, this discussion originally started in the the New Forest Classic thread is worth its own space. Mods.

All on road (although some roads left a little to be desired!)

...as with most of the UK. We encountered a newly resurfaced road on sunday, the old tar and chippings job, it was full on strada bianchi surface

 

[mjr]

...as with most of the UK. We encountered a newly resurfaced road on sunday, the old tar and chippings job, it was full on strada bianchi surface

Strade bianchi is better because there's no tar to stick chippings to your tyres and score your forks and stays each rotation.

 

[T4tomo]

Strade bianchi is better because there's no tar to stick chippings to your tyres and score your forks and stays each rotation.

fortunately they covered all the tar, but not done the sweeping off bit yet, so no sticky bits, but plenty of loose gravel, a real slow down and stick to the parts the cars had flattened down job.

serious question, why don't they us the nice smooth tarmac one smaller roads like they do in france and spain? is it just a cost thing?

 

[mjr]

serious question, why don't they us the nice smooth tarmac one smaller roads like they do in france and spain? is it just a cost thing?

I was at a highways talk years ago where the speaker said the cheapest and most eco approach is one complete redo with smooth tarmac and two patch/tar/chip coatings.

I suspect that ignores the costs of failed chippings ( about 20-25% of their attempts seem to need remedial work), vehicle damage and injuries, but I can't prove that.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I was at a highways talk years ago where the speaker said the cheapest and most eco approach is one complete redo with smooth tarmac and two patch/tar/chip coatings.

I suspect that ignores the costs of failed chippings ( about 20-25% of their attempts seem to need remedial work), vehicle damage and injuries, but I can't prove that.

If you ever come across French roadworks, for instance in the Alps. They don’t piss around. They completely close the road. Get the whole section resurfaced with sufficient man and machine power and then will reopen it.

Result, super smooth tarmac and closed as short as possible.

 

[T4tomo]

Massively OT but I was driving through Northern Sweden once and came across a road that they were resurfacing. They had stripped the surface off and were working on it but hadn't closed it. About an hour of very slow bumpy dusty driving followed. The alternative was probably about a 100-200km detour. I guess they needed to get it done quickly during the un-frozen months. I'm sure the paintwork of my hire car picked up more than a few chips.

even further off topic geographically, in my youth i drove a hire car on NZ north island, where a number of the minor roads are gravel, i.e just loose gravel. You wouldn't attempt to cycle on them except on a MTB and I managed to 180 the hire car with an ill advised dab of the brakes into a corner. fortunately no damage done or oncoming traffic to worry about.

 

[Drago]

My BiL is a civil enginer. He reckons the marmite and rice crispies method is a shortish term solution that does extend the useable life of the surface, allowing authorities to eke it out a little longer.

However, he says done badly, or done repeatedly in lieu of a proper repair, it actually accelerates the erosion of a failing surface by doing nothing more than providing an abrasive medium which itself acts to cause further damage.

The local pothole managemnt bugs me. They send a man out to put a ring of blue spray paint around a pothole. They then do nothing, and the pothole grows and swallows all trace of the blue paint. Whats all that about? If they want to save money in road repairs thats a salary right there.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I have to say that when I have come across a pothole around here I try to remember and report it
every time I have done this some spray paint has appeared within a week or so and it has been patched up within a few more weeks

The centre of Liverpool appears to be somewhat different. I think they are going back to concept that if you leave a pothole long enough a car will fall into it completly - and then everyone can just drive over the top of it

 

[Ming the Merciless]

One of our local lanes has just been done French style. It’s fantastic and smooth as a baby’s bum. Going to enjoy not having to dodge holes and rough tarmac worried I’ll get thrown off. Complete resurface, would have thought?

 

[Darius_Jedburgh]

Lancashire County Council are pretty good. They have minimum sizes that can be reported, but there are usually several holes together so I just say the road is breaking up with multiple holes.

I usually gild the lily about pedestrians wrenching ankle/kneejoints, horses breaking legs and having to be destroyed, cyclists being thrown under a lorry and I finish off with warning about cars destroying suspension parts and causing a major accident. Within a few days the white paint appears.

Maysayside is a different story.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Have any tarmac roads reached Yorkshire yet or is it still horse and cart on rough tracks?

 

[classic33]

Have any tarmac roads reached Yorkshire yet or is it still horse and cart on rough tracks?

We have tarmaced roads. Only locally there's a fair few roads with roadworks.

 

[slowmotion]

I ride round Hammersmith Broadway in west London a few times a week on my way home. It's a very busy roundabout-like junction with five exits and up to five lanes of traffic, but no problem at all when you know the layout. In January, a rectangular crater about three by one feet, four inches deep appeared near one of the exits, not fun if you are on a bike. It was still there four days later when I reported it to the council. They "fixed" it quickly but the patch disappeared within a few days. The process repeated twice again before a halfway reasonable repair was made. The amazing thing is that somebody saw fit to sign off the work as acceptable three times before doing anything useful.

 

[snorri]

Resurfacing and surface dressing, a summary.
https://www.hazellj.co.uk/surface-dressing-what-you-need-to-know

 

[johnnyb47]

Just the other week i was cycling down some road somewhere (can't remember where it was) but some utilities company was digging up a trench about 100 metres long. A few days later it finished and filled back in again with some nice tarmac placed on the top. At the end of the finished trench there's a bend in the road with some faded paint on the road saying "slow" The trench was dug straight through this sign and once finished the contractors repainted the sign. As the trench only cut through the "L" part of the word slow it made me laugh to see that they only repainted the letter "L"
Going past in a car you would only a letter "L" as the rest is badly faded.
My point is why didn't they just repaint the whole sign!
It would of cost peanuts to do and would of taken them just a few more minutes. Getting a line painting group down there with all the equipment of the truck which heats the paint up etc to travel from goodness knows where to just paint a letter "L" and leave the rest badly faded is madness and a waste of tax payers money.
No doubt the council will probably ask the same road painting crew to come back in the next few months and paint the other 3 letters