Road Damage

spen666

At least one lane of the A12 is today closed at Redbridge after a bus caught fire last night and "welded itself" to the road, causing damage to the road surface.

This seems to becoming a more common thing ( no- not London buses catching alight) ie fires/ accidents leading to damage to the road surface and the road having to be re surfaced.



Bus Fire


Just wondered why this should be

Crapaud

Running a vehicule is becoming so expensive that people / companies are making economies on maintenance?

An increasing amount of electronics in modern vehicules?

spen666

Crapaud wrote:

Running a vehicule is becoming so expensive that people / companies are making economies on maintenance?

An increasing amount of electronics in modern vehicules?

not sure how the first point contributes to more damage to the road. lack of maintenance may lead to more accidents- I accept that. however the reality is that motoring is cheaper now than it was even 20 years ago in real terms


I would be suprised if the electric were causing the damage- I personally would not have thought the electrics would burn so as to damage the road surface

nwallace

Almost all buses are now powered by large capacity engines with exhaust gas powered forced induction. Also known as Turbo Diesel.

Jean-Louis Schlesser demonstrated this in the middle of the Sahara a few years back.

Should oil or fuel hit a turbocharger there isn't much time to get out and results in a very intense fire. Poor maintainance is part of it though, I know of someone who drives Nat Express to London, he pulled a bus out of service twice in a couple of weeks due to fire alarms. A week later it melted into the A1 at the Angel, the mechanics decided the best fix for the alarm was to turn off the engine bay fire detectors. Totally failing to notice the loose connection of fuel lien to fuel injector that had occasionally spat a bit of fuel onto hot surfaces.

spen666

nwallace wrote:

Almost all buses are now powered by large capacity engines with exhaust gas powered forced induction. Also known as Turbo Diesel.

Jean-Louis Schlesser demonstrated this in the middle of the Sahara a few years back.

Should oil or fuel hit a turbocharger there isn't much time to get out and results in a very intense fire. ....

Do trucks use same sort of engine as a lot of road damage seems to be on motorways?

OffTheBackAdam

If you have a burning vehicle upon a tarmac road, it's no surprise that the road gets damaged, the tar would melt then ignite if they fire's burning long enough.
Getting more common? I don't know if they're are any official stats for it, but more traffic equals more vehicle fires?