Roadworks - resurface good road, but leave the bad bits
Discussion
Tell me about it; I got all excited when I saw local road get closed for repair work as it was terrible for a good few months. They reopened it and my disappointment was palpable; they hadn't resurfaced but instead replaced all the worn speed bumps with new ones - they weren't even the gentle, easy to drive over kind either.
TEKNOPUG said:
Where I live, resurfacing consists of pouring tonnes of gravel over a section of road. No new tar, no rollers or anything. Just leave if for the road users to distribute and flatten the gravel. They do helpfully put "Skid Risk" signs up though.....
The roads around where I live were treated with that a few months ago. I received a lovely cracked windscreen. 
funkyrobot said:
Also, there is another piece of road that is completely disintegrating and has a large sunken patch. Right next to this road is a layby used to store all of the road repair materials.
Did they bother to take anything out of the layby and fix the road a few yards away? No.
Doesn't look like they've fixed anything of late...Did they bother to take anything out of the layby and fix the road a few yards away? No.
funkyrobot said:
Why do some highway planners think it a good idea to resurface a piece of road that is absolutely fine, but completely ignore a pothole-riddled section about 100 yards away?
Is this on the same road number?Or is there a county boundary between them?
If any of the above may come in to play then roads are generally 'owned' by either the council or Highways England.
If its a 'strategic trunk A-road' or motorway then it will be Highways England, if its a 'normal' A-road, B-road etc. then it will be council.
The funding, responsibility, maintenance and improvements for sections of road will depend on who 'owns' them.
Another factor may be under the term "emergency works", say for example if a drainage system had collapsed, or if there was subsidence, or if there was damage to the road surface from vehicle fire etc. etc.
Then this and only this (the damaged section) would be covered by emergency works funding.
There "should" be a reason for what they have done, and if an authority owns all the road in question then there "should" be some 'joined up thinking'..... if not then contact the authority to find out what the feck is going on!
The 'planners' in my area should be sued for misrepresentation, they certainly can't plan for s
t. In a 3 month period they came to the same stretch of road to tarmac sections at a time. No idea how that can be cost effective. They even stopped the repair of one section with a huge pothole within one metre of the repair. Think they need to invest in a new road roller too, one with a round wheel! Still they did repair the pothole that buckled my wheel so that's a positive.
t. In a 3 month period they came to the same stretch of road to tarmac sections at a time. No idea how that can be cost effective. They even stopped the repair of one section with a huge pothole within one metre of the repair. Think they need to invest in a new road roller too, one with a round wheel! Still they did repair the pothole that buckled my wheel so that's a positive.Quick update.
The section of road that was needlessly cut up has been left that way. So, not only do you have to avoid the potholes when approaching the roundabout, you have to slow down for a few ramps and some raised ironworks.
It seems that the work started over a week ago has just been left. The signs say it was supposed to be finished by today.
The section of road that was needlessly cut up has been left that way. So, not only do you have to avoid the potholes when approaching the roundabout, you have to slow down for a few ramps and some raised ironworks.
It seems that the work started over a week ago has just been left. The signs say it was supposed to be finished by today.
I'll tell you straight from the horses mouth.
Funding has been hugely cut by Highways England.
A year ago we were told by Cameron to 'resurface 80% of the strategic network by 2020' and was looking at £160m to spend on the roads.
That has done a complete U-turn since and the actual budget is closer to £60m for us.
What this means (and it does seriously aggravate me as a designer, I promise we don't do it to intentionally annoy people), is that we're left to 'stick a plaster on it for 12 month' on our schemes rather than fix it properly once and for all.
2 years ago, H.E. would've laughed us out the room for suggesting surface dressing (or equivalent) on our schemes. Yet just recently one of my proposals to recon a section of road because it really is ruined, was laughed at, and their technical arm actually asked me to design and price for surface dressing
We just go around in circles. It's all to do with where they want to spend money each year. You'll definitely find instances where good looking pieces of road are dug up and the nearby section that's covered in defects will be left alone.
We did one last year, a section was 'life expired'. Nothing visually wrong with it, no major defects, acceptable skid resistance etc. But because it was a certain age, it had to be ripped out and replaced. Nearby section that were newer but more damaged were ignored..
So I'm sorry that this annoys you, it annoys us in the industry just as much.
Funding has been hugely cut by Highways England.
A year ago we were told by Cameron to 'resurface 80% of the strategic network by 2020' and was looking at £160m to spend on the roads.
That has done a complete U-turn since and the actual budget is closer to £60m for us.
What this means (and it does seriously aggravate me as a designer, I promise we don't do it to intentionally annoy people), is that we're left to 'stick a plaster on it for 12 month' on our schemes rather than fix it properly once and for all.
2 years ago, H.E. would've laughed us out the room for suggesting surface dressing (or equivalent) on our schemes. Yet just recently one of my proposals to recon a section of road because it really is ruined, was laughed at, and their technical arm actually asked me to design and price for surface dressing
We just go around in circles. It's all to do with where they want to spend money each year. You'll definitely find instances where good looking pieces of road are dug up and the nearby section that's covered in defects will be left alone.
We did one last year, a section was 'life expired'. Nothing visually wrong with it, no major defects, acceptable skid resistance etc. But because it was a certain age, it had to be ripped out and replaced. Nearby section that were newer but more damaged were ignored..
So I'm sorry that this annoys you, it annoys us in the industry just as much.
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