Loose chippings - Resurfacing
Discussion
Can someone explain whether there is any logic to the following that might not have occurred to me? I travel regularly on the A4260, which links Banbury and Kidlington. A couple of months ago they did some repairs to bits where largish parts of the surface had become damaged and recessed where people's wheels run. They did a really nice job, with some large patches of smooth black stuff which was level with the existing surface. It's now much nicer to drive on.
The council has now put up a sign warning of surface dressing commencing next week. It strikes me as profoundly stupid to do some good quality repairs, and then shortly afterwards do the entire road with a lower quality treatment. What have I missed?
The council has now put up a sign warning of surface dressing commencing next week. It strikes me as profoundly stupid to do some good quality repairs, and then shortly afterwards do the entire road with a lower quality treatment. What have I missed?
mon the fish said:
It appears no-one in road departments actually cycles, or stops to fully think through what cycling entails. Sure, you get the odd bit of cycle lanepaint or whatever, but it appears that's done to tick a box - it's not actually done to make cycling easier/better/safer.
I don't think we have cycle lanes in this country, do we? We have paint though. Lots of paint.All that jazz said:
If area 9 covers the A1M between the top of the M1 at Aberford and Bramham please expedite the work ASAP. The surface of the moon would actually be smoother than it is currently and their 3-month rota of patching up some of the worst bits is a complete waste of time. Balfour Beatty should've been taken to court many times over for the unbelievably s
tty job they did when they built it. 
Nope, it's the Midlands mainly..tty job they did when they built it. 
mr pg said:
Along with being a motorist, I also cycle a lot, and chippings are a nightmare! For weeks afterwards I have to double my distance from the kerb due to the excess that gets flung to the kerb, putting me into the traffic flow. Staying near the kerb would be like riding on marbles
You shouldn't be near the kerb, you should be in primary position. Kerbs have crap like loose chippings (duh) and drains in, and give you no road presence to deter stupidly close overtakes. Ride on the left car tyre track and you'll get more space granted.wst said:
ou shouldn't be near the kerb, you should be in primary position. Kerbs have crap like loose chippings (duh) and drains in, and give you no road presence to deter stupidly close overtakes. Ride on the left car tyre track and you'll get more space granted.
The space granted will be obtained by people moving blithely into oncoming traffic. How is it so difficult for people to understand that slowing down to the same speed as a cyclist IS an option?! Most people seem much keener to risk an accident than wait for a suitable gap.(That's not a complaint at your suggestion WST - just something that I've noticed now that more cyclists are out.)
God I hate this fking stuff.
The worst example I've seen was near Littlehampton about 2 years ago - the council had actually decided to surface dress a residential side street and cocked it up badly. The stones were so deep it was almost a make shift beach and they were being plastered everywhere. I would have been bloody livid if I lived there. (Suss council seem to be infatuated with the stuff, any surface was game)
king stuff. The worst example I've seen was near Littlehampton about 2 years ago - the council had actually decided to surface dress a residential side street and cocked it up badly. The stones were so deep it was almost a make shift beach and they were being plastered everywhere. I would have been bloody livid if I lived there. (Suss council seem to be infatuated with the stuff, any surface was game)
MrBarry123 said:
We had this a few weeks back and I'm sure I annoyed a few people by crawling at 5mph for 3 miles.
I apologise to those people.
Yep annoyed I would be too if I were behind you. 5mph is just plain stupid! I'm sure you exaggerate wildly.I apologise to those people.
The 20mph that is often posted on these stretches is just about right. If a stone is going to fly up from a tyre squashing it, it'll fly up at any speed.
As said earlier its the d
head in the transit / Audi that doesn't give a st about his company vehicle that needs to slow down.A 12 mile or so stretch of the A46 south of Nailsworth was recently tarred and chipped and festooned with '20' and 'No Overtaking' signs. Signs were in red rings so legally enforceable? As expected not many vehicles were prepared to travel at 20mph for 12 miles and overtaking was rife. I did the return journey (from north Bristol back to Stroud) on the M5 to avoid that section of the A46.
bobbo89 said:
Glad someone got in with this to save me posting it!
If surface dressing wasn't carried out there'd be a far louder outcry a few years down the line when the majority of major roads are completely fked due to a lack of proper maintenance and no budget available for any of the surfacing needed!
What's the cost to the 'budget' of dead or maimed motorcyclists? If surface dressing wasn't carried out there'd be a far louder outcry a few years down the line when the majority of major roads are completely f
ked due to a lack of proper maintenance and no budget available for any of the surfacing needed! People who think this is a good idea are dumb b
ds.edit to add: I'd rather find an alternative route than be suddenly confronted by a section of road of unknown length covered in stone chips. Close them, put diversions in place and resurface properly.
Edited by Motorrad on Wednesday 29th July 11:11
munchintoz said:
MrBarry123 said:
We had this a few weeks back and I'm sure I annoyed a few people by crawling at 5mph for 3 miles.
I apologise to those people.
Yep annoyed I would be too if I were behind you. 5mph is just plain stupid! I'm sure you exaggerate wildly.I apologise to those people.
The 20mph that is often posted on these stretches is just about right. If a stone is going to fly up from a tyre squashing it, it'll fly up at any speed.
As said earlier its the d
head in the transit / Audi that doesn't give a st about his company vehicle that needs to slow down.It was a dual carriageway so people could go past me to the right.
I also saw a DB9 going the other way which looked to be doing a similar speed to me.
MrBarry123 said:
No, it's not an exaggeration - I was using no throttle i.e. allowing the car to creep in first gear.
It was a dual carriageway so people could go past me to the right.
I also saw a DB9 going the other way which looked to be doing a similar speed to me.
Aaah.. Now it's all 'clear'.... cough... That was you It was a dual carriageway so people could go past me to the right.
I also saw a DB9 going the other way which looked to be doing a similar speed to me.
When surface dressings is done properly, it does work.
It shouldn't be sprayed over potholes. When it's done right, the potholes are all properly 'patched' a few weeks beforehand, by digging out the affected surface and repairing it properly.
Afterwards the surface dressing is applied, the whole road looks much neater and the life of the surface is extended by many years.
It all depends on how well the job is done, like anything in life.
It shouldn't be sprayed over potholes. When it's done right, the potholes are all properly 'patched' a few weeks beforehand, by digging out the affected surface and repairing it properly.
Afterwards the surface dressing is applied, the whole road looks much neater and the life of the surface is extended by many years.
It all depends on how well the job is done, like anything in life.
csd19 said:
The idiotic local council did a similar thing about a month ago - now on the sections which are 90 degree bends there are no chippings left, just very shiny tar. That's going to be brilliant in the wet...
I'm just back from a holiday in Cornwall. There's a hill on the outskirts of Helston that appears to have been "surface dressed" recently. I base that assumption on the lack of any white lines, and the presence of "No Road Markings" temporary signs.The surface itself? It looks like four oil slicks flowing down a gravel track. The tyre tracks are a lovely polished deep, shiny black, surrounded by thin strips of a grey gravel-like surface. So much for "improving grip"
The road near me in Farnborough which they recently 'dressed' was an unmitigated disaster too. The cowboys who did it swept all the gutter-crap into the cycle "by-pass" for the traffic calming chicane, and left it there, blocking it for weeks. When they finally came to sweep it up, it just got replaced by a pile of loose chippings, meaning no sensible cyclist would go near the little 'by-pass' sections, but they couldn't use the main part of the carriageway through the chicanes either, because no matter what the 'Priority' signs said, car drivers were largely refusing to obey them to allow bikes through. After a couple of months things are getting better with regard to riding on this surface, but faults in the applied dressing layer are ALREADY apparent, and although they've managed to reinstate the white road markings, they haven't even had time to come back with the yellow paint to mark the double-yellows and bus stops yet.This stuff is a nightmare. It helps no-one, and serves only to allow the LA to claim that they've sorted the roads,when in reality all they've achieved is pouring tax revenue into an open sewer. I feckin' hate the stuff.
...and as for the advisory limits? They are worse than useless too. If you obey them, you get bullied and harried all the way through the works, and they only serve to protect vehicles (and moreover, the new surface) from damage if everyone plays nice and slows down. Such surface dressing once cost me a new windscreen and headlight. It's all very well slowing down yourself, but when an articulated bulk tipper thunders through a recently dressed section at 40+ mph in the opposite direction, there's nothing you can do to prevent the shower of shrapnel that pings off the car, chipping off paint and cracking the glass.
Still, all this moaning on t'internet is just that. A moan...
It gets us no further forward, in the grand scheme of things
zarjaz1991 said:
It shouldn't be sprayed over potholes. When it's done right, the potholes are all properly 'patched' a few weeks beforehand, by digging out the affected surface and repairing it properly.
Afterwards the surface dressing is applied, the whole road looks much neater and the life of the surface is extended by many years.
Sounds like that might answer my question. Afterwards the surface dressing is applied, the whole road looks much neater and the life of the surface is extended by many years.
I think most of the surface dressing I've had experience of has been done poorly. When I lived in Cardiff, a road near Barry was done, and lasted days before it needed doing again. They even put signs up saying that what they'd done had failed. I've seen some recently in Beeston that was such a coarse surface that the paint for the lines looked about an inch thick in order to get down into all the nooks and crannies.
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