Gravel / resurfacing on roads

[airbrakes]

doogz said:

Why the fk should you?

Because if you don't, you'll damage your car more than you have been for the last year or so, by driving too fast for the conditions.

You'd think there was something difficult about this, when it's incredibly simple

You strike me as one of these people that run their mouth online, f-ing and blinding, and I bet if you actually met one of these council officials, you'd be too scared to say or do anything at all, and would be incredibly polite to them.

Here's an idea for you - HOW ABOUT THEY FIX THE ROADS INSTEAD. We'll see how frustrated you get driving at 25mph for 8 miles to commute most days. If I did meet them in person, I'd ask why they consistently cut frontline services and st on us from a great height with pisspoor contractors, whilst council bosses salary and bonus pay only ever goes up

[airbrakes]

doogz said:

How frustrated I get?

Remember I posted before you in the thread, stating how they'd applied exactly this sort of surface to the road outside my house? Yet, am I crying about it?

Have they done this at your house at uni? Or at your parents? Or do you live at home while you're at uni?

I'm not on about crappy gravel resurfacing, we dont even get that. I'm on about roads that are spo uneven, bumpy, cratered and washboarded that its literally like a moonscape in places. And because its at my parents house in the countryside, of course we're out of sight and out of mind because we're not on the councillor's commute across town.

If people can claim for damaged wheels and tyres, I am actually going to take them to the cleaners if ever any damage results to my steam engine or trailer from it crashing over a fking great unavoidable pothole, which it sometimes does even when "driving to the conditions" which translates to literally almost walking pace in places (i'm being serious)

Edited by airbrakes on Tuesday 9th July 15:09

[streaky]

Oh for the return of the Direct Works Department ... where the Council employees knew their patch, and walked/cycled/drove along and around it while going about their business and pleasure.

Streaky

[rallen]

I believe, maybe incorrectly, that there is very little or no accountability when you work for the council. You will always get paid your salary, you can turn in past way past 9 and leave before 5 and take hours for lunch, and no one will butt an eyelid. No bi-yearly reviews, no appraisals, no bking from your boss, nothing. And this is NOT how it works in the private sector.

[Davidonly]

streaky said:

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

4rephill said:

I had a very irate (young) driver behind Me the other day, weaving all over the place, flapping his arms around and shouting abuse at Me whilst sat right on My rear bumper because I was driving slowly on a stretch of resurfaced road to reduce the amount of stones being thrown up.

After a while I got fed up with his remonstrations and so I did what he wanted and sped up a bit!

Strangely enough, this didn't seem to appease him either! - Although he did seem to want to leave a larger gap to Me all of a sudden!

There's just no pleasing some people!

Are you God? If not, why do you always spell the word "me" or "my" with a capital "M"?

Probably a a Driving God, or similar superior deity. Common as muck, on here.

Streaky

This... I go about 5mph on these stretches to preserve the underseal, wheels and paint on my treasured (expensive) possession. Other folk go mental

I also do one wheel striking speed cushions to prevent inner shoulder tyre wear and stupid forces being applied to suspension components, this also causes rage...

These road repairs and 'speed cushions' are fking terrible.

[streaky]

Road 'repairs' and the lack of them appear to be more effective at slowing traffic than scameras are.

I travelled along the A31 recently, there are NSL stretches of that with the top inch or so missing.

Streaky

[Riley Blue]

rallen said:

I believe, maybe incorrectly, that there is very little or no accountability when you work for the council. You will always get paid your salary, you can turn in past way past 9 and leave before 5 and take hours for lunch, and no one will butt an eyelid. No bi-yearly reviews, no appraisals, no bking from your boss, nothing. And this is NOT how it works in the private sector.

I suspect your post was not intended to be believed. If it was, it is incorrect in just about all respects.

[beko1987]

They did this outside Chinnor on the Risborough road a few weeks ago when my daughter was in hospital, so got to see it a day at a time.

Day 1 - Covered all the ironwork up
Day 2 - Skimmed the surface
Day 3 - Re-laid it (going well so far)
Day 4 - covered it in chippings
Day 5 - Already tracks in the chippings
Day 8 - chippings all gone apart from on corners which nearly caught me out a few times.

What made me chuckle is there are speed bumps one end of the road coming out of Chinnor, they have been crap for months. They laid the new surface around the bumps, and covered them slightly so they are shallower than before, and nicer to use. 4 days passed with some very hot weather and the sides of the humps are already down to the old surface underneath!

[technobob]

I seem to recall there is something called 'best value' which councils have to stick to, where they have to take the lowest price quoted in the tender process. I did have a cars paint repaired once as result of chippings, but it was the contractor or their insurance whoi paid (it was a long time ago though). They have done a lot of chipping round here and the signs they have put up say '20mph' and 'skid risk', so they know they are leaving roads in a dangerous state.

[blueg33]

technobob said:

I seem to recall there is something called 'best value' which councils have to stick to, where they have to take the lowest price quoted in the tender process. I did have a cars paint repaired once as result of chippings, but it was the contractor or their insurance whoi paid (it was a long time ago though). They have done a lot of chipping round here and the signs they have put up say '20mph' and 'skid risk', so they know they are leaving roads in a dangerous state.

Best value does not mean lowest price except to the hard of thinking in the public sector.

I have to explain best value 100's of times a year whenever we submit a tender to a public body

[MiniGrin]

Recently lots of roads in my area have been resurfaced leaving a thick layer of gravel.
While they're resurfacing and have cut off the top layer the old road and reopened it as a temporary road surface. This means I have to play a game of dodge the manhole cover (which are the perfect hight to smash my sump/rip off the exhaust). This doesn't tend to go down well with the car behind me.
Then after closing the road for what seems like forever they reopen it with lots of gravel still on the surface perfect to strip my wheel arches, under-body and nose of all paint . And no matter how carefully and slowly you drive you can guarantee everyone behind overtaking and spraying your car with gravel.
I don't know how councils get away with it!

[rallen]

Outside of the gravel that destroys your car, there are so many potholes that you'd think you're in a third world country. From what I have noticed, motorways, A roads and B roads are OK, but the rest is atrocious.

[Who me ?]

Now I wish I'd taken photo . Locally we've had this under the guise of "surface dressing2 with letters to households in the area disclaiming any blame for damage. The what next - 20 signs, with " skid danger" under that. SO WHAT. I don't know if the person placing the sign had vision problems ,but the post the sign was palced under had a large roundel in red with a white circle inside and the numbers "20" in black .

[Rovinghawk]

MiniGrin said:

have cut off the top layer the old road and reopened it as a temporary road surface. This means I have to play a game of dodge the manhole cover (which are the perfect hight to smash my sump/rip off the exhaust).

Top layer is typically 30mm- just how low are your sump/exhaust?

[MiniGrin]

Rovinghawk said:

Top layer is typically 30mm- just how low are your sump/exhaust?

Well, its a mini so is pritty low, and the sump hangs down a long way on them. But i dont know if youd call it the top layer or not, but when they scrape off the old road rurface and then before they put the new stuff on, its left with the manhole covers sticking up highenough to attack my car

Edited by MiniGrin on Thursday 18th July 00:07

Edited by MiniGrin on Thursday 18th July 00:08

[blueg33]

Rovinghawk said:

Top layer is typically 30mm- just how low are your sump/exhaust?

30mm would probably catch the sump on the G33.

I drove from Moreton In Marsh to Chipping Norton yesterday, loveely road with tarmac in great condition, but, yes you guesed it, they are surface dressing it.

An artic came the other way trailing a massive cloude of dust and chippings, I I hadn't noticed a gate I could pull into, my new paintwork would have been shot blasted.

[DaveL485]

There are a load of roads coming in from M42 J3 toward Birmingham that have just had this done, utterly awful. The main roads were like a gravel rally stage for days.
Waste of time and taxpayers money.

[Fastpedeller]

PhilboSE said:

Must be really really dodgy on a pedalbike (of which they are many, as I live in the "cycling capital of Surrey").

Yes - very dodgy on a cycle. A couple of years ago I came across a 2 mile section of country lane where the chippings were about 80mm deep. They had also not filled potholes, so if there was one the chips could be 150mm deep! Along the road were 2 young ladies in tears trying to lead their horses over it to the farm 1 mile away, but the horses didn't want to walk on it. I wished I'd called the Police and tried to get them to close the road (I suspect I'd have been unsuccessful anyway). I complained to the council (Norfolk) vigorously and they just said "If you cycle at the correct speed it's safe" - I asked them to tell me the correct speed, because If I rode faster I was less likely to fall on hitting a soft section, but of course IF I fell off I was more likely to be damaged at a higher speed - Bit of a catch 22 really! They just repeated themselves so I dug my heals in (no pun intended) and demanded their chief met me at said road and showed me how to ride a bike across it! He wouldn't of course. Don't know if it hit home, but last year their surface work was a much higher standard. WE SHOULD ALL COMPLAIN in writing (email will do these days I'm sure) and do it until you make them squirm! If I see a really bad job again I'll try to get plod involved, and again do it with vigour just to try anything to get these over-paid bds to do their job with my money.

[FiF]

What I have a bit of difficulty with is that they are doing this gravel chips top dressing round by us. Only two sensible ways out of the place.

Both roads done by the same contractor and presumably same technique. One road, which needed doing badly, is fine, a good smooth flat grippy surface, all the chips swept up, hardly anything flying loose.

The other one it's like a gravel rally stage after about 100 competitors, driving in two ruts, dust everywhere, loose gravel in edges and middle.

So what is the difference? The only one I can observe is that one has a 7.5 tonne limit on it, although there isn't that much heavy traffic on the other, though there is some.

[LoonR1]

NinjaPower said:

the front end washes right out and he goes straight into the hedge,

I hope this guy gets a new Ducati off you, you bunch of s.

Losing the front on a Monster sounds more like st riding than down to the gravel alone. It's easy to ride through it on a front end biased sports bike let alone a rear biased Monster