Pot Humps

meanredspider

Damn the road repair people! They've taken to way over-filling potholes with tarmac and turning them into bike-sized speed humps. To compound the problem, the loose edges of these humps get broken off by cars to make a mini minefield around the hump. Have left a message with the council this morning as it seems to be a localised problem and must be wasting loads of material as well as being (I'm guessing) a really ineffective repair - not to mention to risk to bikes :roll:

mudcow007

maybe they are just waiting for the weight of traffic to compress it....does sound really like a half arsed job though

i remember a road being resurfaced by my parents house, but they only used tar an no stones.
when the weather got hot the road would melt an turn into sticky shiny nastyness - we found it great to rub on your rims though for super sticky brakes. the council come along eventually an dumped a load of gravel on it an left it for cars to squish into it

suzyb

They over fill them around here as well. I always assumed it was so they would last longer as the little extra material would take a little longer to be destroyed.

meanredspider

Trouble is, as you know, that cars hot the edges and rip them up. Materials like concrete and tarmac are great under compression but rubbish under tension.

bompington

meanredspider wrote:

Trouble is, as you know, that cars hot the edges and rip them up. Materials like concrete and tarmac are great under compression but rubbish under tension.

Trouble is actually that wheels bounce over the bump, thus causing further damage. Road engineers know that you shouldn't do this, I suspect it's just lazy, shoddy work. And it's not just round you, I can assure you.

meanredspider

bompington wrote:

And it's not just round you, I can assure you.

No - it's just that my lot (who used to be excellent) have just started doing it this year

Ben6899

It sounds like a good repair to me.

Patching generally settles and results in a hole, if the patch is finished level with the road surface. A common error by utility companies.

You might find this particular patch ends up standing the test of time.

meanredspider

Ben6899 wrote:

It sounds like a good repair to me.

Patching generally settles and results in a hole, if the patch is finished level with the road surface. A common error by utility companies.

You might find this particular patch ends up standing the test of time.

I'll post some pictures. The patches are higher than the holes were deep! The ones that have been in for a couple of months now are breaking up from the leading edges. Believe me, these are never going to settle.

t4tomo

we have one hole on my way home, a lovely 12-24" from the kerb, that constantly gets patched and sinks very quickly. It almost like thety are patching a piece of localised quicksand. Its was a hump for a while, now one half of it is hump and one half hole. definately one to avoid.

nation

There was one like that up the road from me (constantly sinking patch).

Turned out to be a leaking water main draining into a broken drain, which was washing away material under the surface. Eventually a huge hole two feet deep appeared and filled with water and something was done about it.

Suppose it was lucky it wasn't a busy road.

Long_Time_Lurker

At least your council are trying...
There is no point taking a roadie out around here (N.E. coast), due to the amount of holes in the road. Safer to commute on an MTB - your wheels last longer.