UK flooding

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  • adamfo
    adamfo Posts: 763
    I noticed Ed Millipede was sploshing about in black wellies. An attempt to reinforce his 'working class' credentials no doubt. A bit like when Blair turned up at his local constituency meeting in a donkey jacket. Camoron and Clegg, of course, grandstanded in green ones !
    Having said that Millipede did handle this quite well:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/02 ... 66468.html
  • briantrumpet
    briantrumpet Posts: 20,339
    Mr Goo wrote:
    As for one of my previous comments about the Motorways needing resurfacing and a responder stating they are in good nick. Well have a drive down the M5 from Taunton. Inside lane is carved up badly, potholed (not deep) and with the debris in piles along the hard shoulder. Made for white knuckle driving on Weds with torrential rain and high side winds to contend with.
    Yes, agreed, after Christmas was the first time I've seen the M5 down here in such poor nick - it's going to take some sorting out. And as for Exeter - can you imagine the chaos caused by this major collapse of infrastructure, that made headline news in the Express & Echo?:

    e&epothole.jpg
    https://www.facebook.com/unanglaisendiois
  • Le Commentateur
    Le Commentateur Posts: 4,099
    The M5 is actually floating on the Somerset levels. To build it they had to use recycled fuel ash sourced from coal-fired power stations, as normal rock-based foundations would have been too heavy.
    Un uomo solo al commando
  • Mikey23
    Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
    That's one of those facts to bring up at parties and make me look clever...
  • sloppyschleckonds
    sloppyschleckonds Posts: 8,019
    Mikey23 wrote:
    That's one of those facts to bring up at parties and make me look interesting...

    FTFY
    I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles
  • briantrumpet
    briantrumpet Posts: 20,339
    briantrumpet wrote:
    Mr Goo wrote:
    As for one of my previous comments about the Motorways needing resurfacing and a responder stating they are in good nick. Well have a drive down the M5 from Taunton. Inside lane is carved up badly, potholed (not deep) and with the debris in piles along the hard shoulder. Made for white knuckle driving on Weds with torrential rain and high side winds to contend with.
    Yes, agreed, after Christmas was the first time I've seen the M5 down here in such poor nick - it's going to take some sorting out. And as for Exeter - can you imagine the chaos caused by this major collapse of infrastructure, that made headline news in the Express & Echo?:

    e&epothole.jpg

    Imagine my disappointment when I went to see this local landmark today, and they've actually (almost) filled them in.

    Re the M5 - independently, I had a friend who's been up and down it today saying to avoid the middle lane through Somerset - riddled with potholes, apparently. One wonders in that case how long it will stay floating on its bed of ash.
    https://www.facebook.com/unanglaisendiois
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,463
    briantrumpet wrote:
    Mr Goo wrote:
    As for one of my previous comments about the Motorways needing resurfacing and a responder stating they are in good nick. Well have a drive down the M5 from Taunton. Inside lane is carved up badly, potholed (not deep) and with the debris in piles along the hard shoulder. Made for white knuckle driving on Weds with torrential rain and high side winds to contend with.
    Yes, agreed, after Christmas was the first time I've seen the M5 down here in such poor nick - it's going to take some sorting out.

    Which sort of proves the point I was making - the fact that you have noticed one section (out of thousands of miles) which has been bad for a couple of months. Having said that, I drove it in early January and didn't notice it being as bad as made out above. Roads will inevitably fail at some point either from getting beyond their design life or due to underlying issues and bad weather accelerates that but motorways generally get repaired quickly when they do fail unexpectedly - unlike most local roads.
  • florerider
    florerider Posts: 1,112
    southdownswolf wrote:
    johnfinch wrote:
    southdownswolf wrote:
    RideOnTime wrote:
    So anyway...

    On our local news the other night the presenter gave a very scientific explanation of why the flooding is so bad this year...

    apparently...

    It's because of the heavy rain.

    Whatever happened to go old fashioned "acid rain"? Don't tend to hear of that anymore.

    You would if you lived in certain parts of the world...

    That may be, we would also hear of much worse flooding that what is happening in the UK. However, back in the 80's and early 90's acid rain always seemed to be in the news, perhaps because of Chernobyl, but now it rarely gets mentioned. Are SO2 and Nox levels that much lower than back then?

    The answer is yes they are, and the damage done has largely been reduced. The same arguments raged over the purported costs to industry then as the ones on climate change do today. The difference to climate change is that acid rain was more localised, so a European wide programme resulted in a Europe wide solution.
  • bluefinch
    bluefinch Posts: 20
    Ironically atmospheric SO2 has an global cooling effect (not unlike the "nuclear winter" effect of volcanic dust) and removing it from the atmosphere over the last twenty years to prevent acid rain has probably encouraged global warming. Pumping sulfates into the atmosphere is one of the suggested geo-engineering solutions to global warming. There's a point of view that if Chinese coal power stations weren't as dirty and sulphrous as they are things would be considerable worse - the umbrella effect of the sulphur tends to balance out the greenhouse effect of the carbon at least in the short term.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratospheric_sulfate_aerosols_(geoengineering)
  • finchy
    finchy Posts: 6,686
    bluefinch wrote:
    Ironically atmospheric SO2 has an global cooling effect (not unlike the "nuclear winter" effect of volcanic dust) and removing it from the atmosphere over the last twenty years to prevent acid rain has probably encouraged global warming. Pumping sulfates into the atmosphere is one of the suggested geo-engineering solutions to global warming. There's a point of view that if Chinese coal power stations weren't as dirty and sulphrous as they are things would be considerable worse - the umbrella effect of the sulphur tends to balance out the greenhouse effect of the carbon at least in the short term.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratospheric_sulfate_aerosols_(geoengineering)

    Are you my long lost cousin?
  • finchy
    finchy Posts: 6,686
    SloppySchleckonds wrote:
    Mikey23 wrote:
    That's one of those facts to bring up at parties and make me look interesting...

    FTFY

    No, you haven't. You really haven't. :wink:
  • Mikey23
    Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
    For once I'm lost for a witty riposte...
  • finchy
    finchy Posts: 6,686
    Mikey23 wrote:
    For once I'm lost for a riposte...

    FTFY
  • RideOnTime
    RideOnTime Posts: 4,712
    briantrumpet wrote:
    briantrumpet wrote:
    Mr Goo wrote:
    As for one of my previous comments about the Motorways needing resurfacing and a responder stating they are in good nick. Well have a drive down the M5 from Taunton. Inside lane is carved up badly, potholed (not deep) and with the debris in piles along the hard shoulder. Made for white knuckle driving on Weds with torrential rain and high side winds to contend with.
    Yes, agreed, after Christmas was the first time I've seen the M5 down here in such poor nick - it's going to take some sorting out. And as for Exeter - can you imagine the chaos caused by this major collapse of infrastructure, that made headline news in the Express & Echo?:

    e&epothole.jpg

    Imagine my disappointment when I went to see this local landmark today, and they've actually (almost) filled them in.

    Re the M5 - independently, I had a friend who's been up and down it today saying to avoid the middle lane through Somerset - riddled with potholes, apparently. One wonders in that case how long it will stay floating on its bed of ash.

    Is this all you've got!!!
  • Mikey23
    Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
    And I'm a poet and didn't know it...

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