Road Resurfacing

Leesykoi

Whilst i must congratulate the local councils etc for resurfacing the local roads close to my home (near to Newcastle Race Course for any locals) but what is it with the method of resurfacing ie.......

Chuck some tarmac down and cover it with loads of gravel !!!! For miles around there are 20mph and slip warnings notices.

This makes it virtually impossible to ride on these roads without the P@ fairy visiting or getting gravel rash when not falling off from cars kicking the damn stones up !!!!

I may be getting old but i remember when they had the big roller machines to flatten the roads and make them useable straight away !!!!! :?

OK rant over

One Man And His Bike

Cheap and nasty method, it sucks when they do it to a really good road you like riding too. =/

Cleat Eastwood

like that round here too. it sucks.

MattC59

Consider yourself lucky !! We've still got holes from the bad winter a couple of years ago !!!!

plowmar

The main problem is that this method doesn't fill the potholes just takes some of the definition from them so that you cannot see them.

Must say, crossing fingers, that I haven't had a p***ture but the trails of loose gravel really takes the speed off any ride.

DIESELDOG

DD stands in for a slating.

LA's have umpteem "holes" to fill, take into account the wobbling slabs/ stones in your local high street/market place/footpath, bridleway with ruts to be filled, branches to hack back.

Falls on Highways. And while potholes/craters the size of neptune can/will piss you off, there are other things the LA's have to spend their pocket money on.

Love n hugs

DD

Section 58 1980 Highways Act, basically, proof of inspection and logging problems/complaints = job done. And I didn't say that.

hugo15

Same here. They also seem to be doing this to roads where the surface was fine but ignoring the ones where the pot holes are massive :?

BelgianBeerGeek

The current scheme in Hampshire (under a rather pathetic "Operation Smooth Roads" or something equally nauseating) is to not dump tons of chippings, but to rather put down a layer of "smooth" tarmac. Yes the inverted commas are to highlight the irony of the situation.
One scheme at a busy crossroads ravaged by winter frost was soon laid down and local councillors queued up to have photos taken next to it. 9 months later, coming up.
Another local road with the same smooth intentions was laid in such a nice corrugated way that it shakes my teeth loose.
Still, if we paid "road tax" like the car drivers then we would have good roads, right?

peter101cycle

BelgianBeerGeek wrote:

The current scheme in Hampshire (under a rather pathetic "Operation Smooth Roads" or something equally nauseating) is to not dump tons of chippings, but to rather put down a layer of "smooth" tarmac

Obviously not in the areas that I ride, still laying loose gravel on a lick of tar. Wears out in a couple of years and destroys speed cycling over it. Hate hate hate

Homer J

I think the council gets a bunch of pikeys to do it

welkman

Seem to have done this to 70% of my commute in the last week :roll: its all quite country lanes with no traffic so the gravel is just laying loose.

CyclingBantam

They have done it on a couple of roads near me. The roads were in an ok standard but not any more. It's just bizarre as they leave the really bad roads nearby totally untouched.

pottssteve

It's the opposite over here - they strip off the entire surface to leave that bumpy stuff underneath and then re-lay it beautifully, complete with enormous cycle lanes. However, they recently did the Loorberg and didn't bother to tell anyone so I only found out when I hit the bumps....

When I stray into Belgium it's a different story - it's like riding through the Somme....

DIESELDOG

Homer J wrote:

I think the council gets a bunch of pikeys to do it

Nicely said, could not have said it better. :roll:

Love n hugs

DD

GeorgeShaw

"Top dressing", as it's called, used to be a cheap temporary measure - to seal the road for a while until a proper repair could be done. But after decades of cutbacks, it's become standard practice - even on major roads. If I can, I remove that road from my route list for a year until the cars have scrubbed it out a bit.

pb21

What I don't get is why some roads that do need resurfacing aren't and those that don't are. It makes no sense!

sharky1029

Having been in france last week watching the tour, the roads were fantastic. I did however see a pothole on a back road which was about an inch in diameter.
However some roads we drove on were resurfaced like this and I was glad I didn't have to ride on it.

The riding there is far better with drivers giving bikers far more respect (than other road users as well as in england) and if you go to watch a stage get there about 2 hours before the caravan (big freebee train) goes through and you will be able to ride to 1km to go (assuming you don't get caught by the race) on the closed roads with crowds a police cheering and stopping traffic for you. Its far easier to go faster than on open roads as you can go through junctions without stopping.

Will.C

Same story here in surrey too, on my main road out to most of my routes. Plus they filled in every pothole in said road about 4 weeks before they did the top dressing, it was quite a pleasure to ride for those 4 weeks. Seems like most bad roads are gonna end up like this in the next couple of years.

JamesB

Doing same here, Welsh borders / Herefordshire, have `resurfaced ` lots of roads , spray on asphalt, layer of gravel, horrible, and impossible now to avoid. Irony is that on A44 3 council blokes spent at least a week filling in serious potholes, then the resurfacing took one day over filled in potholes, then re white lining took another week

Somehow seems priorities on time spent are up creek, why not spend more time doing a proper surface ??

+++ the chipping surface has already cost me 1 x car windscreen from gravel chucked up from passing HGV

diggerbucket

I ride a motorbike, and the loose chippings are absolutely lethal. Just yesterday I overtook a few cars, then came across a section of road resurfaced with the loose chippings method, and ended up holding up all the cars I'd just passed. Could barely keep it in a straight line never mind attempting to put any degree of lean round the corners. And then there's all the cars going the other way at 50-60mph spraying me and my bike with gravel.

Annoyed!

Fenred

welkman wrote:

its all quite country lanes with no traffic .

That sounds like like my kinda place!

MattC59

Well, at least they appear to be doing some resurfacing around my way. Not where it's needed, admittedly, but it's a start !!

There's a lovely twisty 1.5 mile descent, on a narrow country lane with beautiful views. It gets hardly any traffic and the road surface was ok, certainly a lot better than some of the main roads around here. They've resurfaced it with very fine chippings, maybe 5mm chips, tops, but there's loads of them !! I started out down the hill and had to turn back, there is so much gravel that I couldn't ride above a walking pace. Cornering would have been a nightmare !

The really annoying thing about this, is that the road will be like this for months now, as it gets hardly any traffic and the surface won't get compressed. Still, at least theye've surfaced something !

BelgianBeerGeek

We had a lovely smooth bit of road as you headed towards the sea. Residential road, then a barrier and a lane to the next village. Because it's blocked no through traffic except a few bikes and walkers.
The council resurfaced it with the dreaded top dressing. Great. Because there is no through traffic it doesn't compact and is now truly awful to ride on.
Total waste of money. Leads me to think that councils just have a map and roads get done at the interval set down according to the coloured crayons, whether needed or not.

*AL*

GeorgeShaw wrote:

"Top dressing", as it's called, used to be a cheap temporary measure - to seal the road for a while until a proper repair could be done. But after decades of cutbacks, it's become standard practice - even on major roads. If I can, I remove that road from my route list for a year until the cars have scrubbed it out a bit.

'Surface dressing' is used where the highway surface is still structurally sound (allowing for defects above a certain percentage of the entire carriageway) but the road surface skid resistance is below the accepted level for the class of road in question.

Before the road is dressed, all defects should be repaired.

Yes, it's the cheaper option, surface dressing costs around £1 per square metre, total carriageway reconstruction costs upwards £9 per square metre.

shockedsoshocked

Done a few round here. Worst road so far had me half skidding half what felt like skiing for about a mile. The roads are heavy round here anyway so they're taking the piss now.

rake

JamesB wrote:

Somehow seems priorities on time spent are up creek, why not spend more time doing a proper surface ??

priorities are up creek is how you get the job in the first place.they'd be dangerous operating road laying machinery.

the suits havent got a clue. im surprised they havent outsorced the roads to germany or somewhere.

Pross

It's simple really - they either surface dress a road in that way to try to prolong its life or they leave it and let it fall apart. It'd be lovely to have all roads planed out and surfaced with fresh asphalt / macadam but it just isn't financially viable. Supposed to be swept twice, once just after laying and a again once the surplus has a chance to wear loose but this seems to get missed.

Pross

diggerbucket wrote:

I ride a motorbike, and the loose chippings are absolutely lethal. Just yesterday I overtook a few cars, then came across a section of road resurfaced with the loose chippings method, and ended up holding up all the cars I'd just passed. Could barely keep it in a straight line never mind attempting to put any degree of lean round the corners. And then there's all the cars going the other way at 50-60mph spraying me and my bike with gravel.

Annoyed!

This is why they put up recommended speed signs for about 15 or 20mph.

nferrar

Yeah it should be banned but unfortunately it's getting more and more common

king_jeffers

Leesykoi wrote:

Whilst i must congratulate the local councils etc for resurfacing the local roads close to my home (near to Newcastle Race Course for any locals) but what is it with the method of resurfacing ie...

Yup I feel your pain Great Lime Road is bad at the moment, not far from the race course, not sure if its the same LA but road condition is setting worse.

Pross

nferrar wrote:

Yeah it should be banned but unfortunately it's getting more and more common

Why should it be banned? It is an economical way to maximise the life of a road saving tax payers a lot of money. Providing proper procedures are used for the process and proper signage is put in place it should not be a safety issue (assuming all road users observe and obey the signage which obviously we all do don't we?). What would you rather:

1. Pay a lot more in council tax to have all roads regularly re-surfaced.
2. Put up with minor inconvenience of some loose chippings for a week or so and maximise the life span of the road.
3. Leave the lovely smooth surface of the old road complete with lack of skidding resistance so that either you slide off or a car loses control and hits you.