Road resurfacing, potholes

Baldytyke88

It's everyones favourite pastime, to complain about potholes.

I have noticed in my area a few roads are getting resurfaced, but they are not the ones with potholes, which is strange.

The potholes will get a temporary repair and it may last a few months.

Does this sound familiar?

They do sometimes do a large section of a road, maybe we just don't understand the complexity of the issue?

oldagetraveller1

My local main road (an A road) had some areas re-surfaced last summer where there were potholes and sunken access covers. It went on for a long time with temporary traffic lights in use.

I suspect it was most certainly far from cheap.

Lo and behold some of those supposedly repaired areas are already disintegrating. Penny wise, pound foolish. Save money by not doing a proper job, then have to spend again to redo. Obviously that will not happen - too embarrasing for the council.

Mildly_Miffed

I've had quite a few dealings with the outsourced maintenance round here.

Basically, the short-term fix is a high-pressure air spray to get the water out of the hole, then high-pressure tar-and-gravel spray to flll it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn812gSSAqA
(Same setup, different council)

As short-term fixes go, it works just fine. It's not MEANT to be a long-term fix.

The trouble is, they've got such a huge backlog that they never get round to doing the long-term fixes... So the short-term fix fails over winter, leaving a bigger hole to be short-term fixed next spring.

Often, the holes start at the edges of previous poor repairs.

There's huge swathes of this county need properly resurfacing - they'll never get it, until Westminster starts to properly fund local government again. This county's council has lost 99% of its central government funding since 2010, a grand a household a year - add in a ten year outsourcing contract that just takes the mickey...

eskbanker

Baldytyke88 said:

I have noticed in my area a few roads are getting resurfaced, but they are not the ones being resurfaced, which is strange.

The roads that are getting resurfaced aren't the ones being resurfaced?

Mildly_Miffed

eskbanker said:

Baldytyke88 said:

I have noticed in my area a few roads are getting resurfaced, but they are not the ones being resurfaced, which is strange.

The roads that are getting resurfaced aren't the ones being resurfaced?

Outsourced to Schrodinger.

strawb_shortcake

Our council are pretty quick at repairing potholes often within 24 hours. But they are repairing the same areas around 4 times a year. 

We have collapsing drains and access covers that are repeated interim fixes.

A few years back they closed the main road for over 2 weeks to "resurface" but ended up patching so the seams deteriorated quite quickly. We've now got a 6 month road closure in our village and the two alternative routes are all in a terrible state, without a major disruption they aren't going to repair either road until September/October assuming the other work isn't delayed. We now have farm vehicles and lorries having to use residential streets so goodness knows what state the roads will be in before long

Baldytyke88

eskbanker said:

Baldytyke88 said:

I have noticed in my area a few roads are getting resurfaced, but they are not the ones being resurfaced, which is strange.

The roads that are getting resurfaced aren't the ones being resurfaced?

I meant to say, the ones that have potholes.

The local authority has a program of works which is planned months/years in advance. So they perhaps are resurfacing on the basis that they last xx years.

But it's the roads with potholes that need resurfacing.

born_again

Baldytyke88 said:

I meant to say, the ones that have potholes.

The local authority has a program of works which is planned months/years in advance. So they perhaps are resurfacing on the basis that they last xx years.

But it's the roads with potholes that need resurfacing.

https://one.network/uk

We have loads planed in our area for the summer.. Sadly all surface dressing. 

Money_Grabber13579

It used to be that when a patch was repaired or utilities dug up the road, the joints would be sealed with liquid tar to stop water getting into the joints. I haven’t seen that being done in years though and I wonder if that is contributing to a lot more potholes?

Baldytyke88

Money_Grabber13579 said:

It used to be that when a patch was repaired or utilities dug up the road, the joints would be sealed with liquid tar to stop water getting into the joints. I haven’t seen that being done in years though and I wonder if that is contributing to a lot more potholes?

A friend's Dad works for the Highways department and he filled 6/7 potholes in a car park near me. He did say they might crack and not be permanent. Just one cracked, the rest are ok so far, he filled the potholes just over a month ago.

Mildly_Miffed

Money_Grabber13579 said:

It used to be that when a patch was repaired or utilities dug up the road, the joints would be sealed with liquid tar to stop water getting into the joints. I haven’t seen that being done in years though and I wonder if that is contributing to a lot more potholes?

The problems start if there's water underneath the patch. That water expands when it freezes, and loosens the grip of the patch, then more water gets in, etc etc.

A good patch shouldn't NEED the edges to be tar-sealed, but it won't hurt.