Are councils deliberately not fixing the roads?

Kaise

notsoblue wrote:

Theres one at the Queen's Ride/LRR roundabout that you could see from space if it wasn't for the tree.... http://goo.gl/maps/vIOM

this one

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&sourc ... 9&t=h&z=20

bornagainroadie

I believe that once the pot hole is reported the council has a legal duty to do something about it. If they dont know about it they cant be held responsible or fix it.

I have reported numerous potholes that appeared on my, mostly rural, commute via the local Councils website. They have nearly all been filled within a couple of weeks of being reported. I was sent email updates during the process and asked to verify that the work has been done to an acceptable quality on completion. If not I can reopen the report for further work. Given the current climate I was amazed that anything was done at all.

Am I lucky enough to live in some pothole utopia?

chadders81

Birmingham are mending them under a PFI. Reckon they'll replace every surface in five years and have got teams working on the potholes on an emergency basis.

Can't say I have noticed much difference so far.

nich

A solution to potholes?



That's right, kevlar lined boxers!

Marcus_C

BornAgainRoadie wrote:

I have reported numerous potholes that appeared on my, mostly rural, commute via the local Councils website. They have nearly all been filled within a couple of weeks of being reported. I was sent email updates during the process and asked to verify that the work has been done to an acceptable quality on completion. If not I can reopen the report for further work. Given the current climate I was amazed that anything was done at all.

I've done this as well, most of the time they're an improvement although some are done so badly that they're worse after they've been filled in.

waddlie

kaiser83 wrote:

there is one on southmead road in bristol that is aweful and its been there about 8 months!

My commute involves cycling the length of Southmead Road. There's a stretch of about 250m which is absolutely shocking, you have to stand up on the pedals to get over it safely and I've taken to driving down the middle of the road to avoid the ruts. The entire road surface seems to be collapsing!

jds_1981

apt thread for me at the moment. Put a one toothed snakebite in my rear tyre on the way home yesterday & very slightly bent the rim. This is on a 23 road bike wheel at 130 psi :evil:
TBH when I hit it thought I'd almost certainly knackered my front wheel but no hissing and no catching on the brake when applied. Only after I got home did the rear fully deflate.

rjsterry

Sutton Council seem to be doing a reasonable job so far. There were a fair few on my route, and every couple of days I notice a few more have been marked up, then a few more days and they've been patched. Don't know how long the repairs'll last and some bits of road have really reached the rip it up and start again stage, but on the whole not too bad. Other councils/TfL seem to be not so bothered.

Origamist

I've reported 28 potholes this winter and as of this morning 19 have been filled. Boroughs responsible: Wandsworth, Lambeth and Merton.

edhornby

+1 waddlie

on bury old road in manchester there is about 3 miles owned by Manchester, and a baby smooth track owned by bury council - and in between these two there is a section of about 200yards owned by salford and it's utter sh12e. because it's a busy road and forms their boundary they do feck all about it, with the exception of filling in the big welt down the middle of the road where 2 previous resurfaces split apart, ignoring the rest in the carriage way

Rooner

OK, I'm the first to moan about the potholes, but we shouldn't say they are only a problem for the UK. I was at a meeting last week in Hamburg, there were guys from Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands there.

They ALL complained about potholes, the person from Holland had f@*ked their car the previous week. AND all of them said that local authorities had also ran out of grit / salt over the winter. AND they didn't have 'communal' grit bins by the road. AND it was illegal to use your own grit / sand (that was either Germany or Holland, I can't remember). AND they get snow every year.

So lets put the poor roads into perspective, its not just us in the UK, the 'rich' countries of Europe are no different.

Headhuunter

CyclingBantam wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

CyclingBantam wrote:

Without being smart, are you reporting them?

Fill that holeon the CTC website makes it easy to report them and, unless there is a bizzare set of coincidences, whenever I report them they get filled within a day or two. (including one whole stretch of road being re-surfaced).

At the end of they day it is a lot easier for them if they are told where they are as opposed to simply having to find them.

The standard of the filling isn't always great I admit and can only really be classed as temp. but it is better being a little uneaven as opposed to lethally deep.

You see here's the thing, Borough high street - as are most roads in London - are very busy. I think it very dangerous to get off my bike, walk into the middle of the road and take a couple photos of potholes. I may not make it back to curb....

I have not photographed one yet. So long as you put the location on the form they can't really miss them. They are the potholes!

I must admit I always tick the box that says I fell off and had minor injuries. The way I see it is, if they then don't fix it they are risking liability once it has been reported.

Seriously, report it. If they are not told, how are they supposed to know?

Yeah I have had good results with those websites. I haven't reported many but when I do they seem to get fixed. Trouble is on some stretches of road, like Cannon St for example, as the road passes the station and up towards London Bridge, the road is more or less one big pothole, basically just a patchwork of repairs after the road has been dug up or damaged by the weather or something and that ridiculous section of cobbled road is a nightmare, it's in a terrible state and as you ride across you almost get thrown from your bike!

fossyant

There is a particular section of road I use on training runs where road has effectively failed - there is slippage and subsidence (the road is on the edge of a bank). It's been getting worse each year and as a result a number of major holes and very bad surface have developed. I've reported it a few times, but it's never been fixed. The area covers about 800 yards of road, and it necessitates riding down the middle of the road - i.e. in primary. Not much fun as it's a 40 zone and drivers generally do 50 down that section. The only good point is that it's down hill, so if you give it some beans, you can get up to 35 mph.

One day, a cyclist or motorbike will come off on this section - I've even warned the council that it's that dangerous.

That said, other holes I've reported have been fixed !

walkingbootweather

Following the 'Big Society' philosophy to its logical conclusion, shouldn't we all be carrying around ballast in our back-packs and fill the holes as we go?

rich_e

Potholes are a mess at the moment.

Not just around London where I live, but I drove somewhere last weekend and the state of the roads is generally bad regardless of where you are and which council maintains them.

I've reported a number of potholes to Islington Council using the FillThatHole website in the past month or so.

I was surprised when I reported one on a Thursday morning and the following Monday morning it had been done.... however a month later and the filling has already come out again! :roll: