Standard of Work: is there an Excuse?
Discussion
Scenario 1
St Albans Road from Barnet High Road to South Mimms was recently re-surfaced. As they usually do, the contractors / Highways people stuck up an advance notice warning road users of the duration of works etc etc.
I thought to myself, 'great, they'll level that b
d dip in the road'. This is an awkward little dip in the road surface which spans about 1.5/2m (at an angle to the road). On a bad day, it feels like it's gonna rip through your chassis; I can imagine a few cars lifting off from it too.
A few days of inconvenience and the road is re-surfaced.
The dip is still there.
Scenario 2
Our road has been dug up by the water people to renew water pipes. Now that they've finished, it's a shame that our tidy-looking road has ended up with these back squares where the holes were dug and filled. Three weeks after this work was completed, a contractor for the gas board turns up and announces that they will be renewing the gas pipes on this street; more bleedin' holes.
For three weeks now, we've had the whole road turned into a bomb site full of piles of mud, holes every 2/3m and plant/machinery/equipment left overnight. The wet weather hasn't helped and tbf, the blokes have worked through the cold and wet (I've made 'em a few cups of tea). But now they're moving onto a different street, the 'filling' gang are here and the type1 crushed concrete has gone in and they're starting to finish of the surfaces... The road look fking awful now.
We've gone from a (smooth) nice looking street to one that resembles a patchwork quilt.
They say there are no plans to resuface the road.
Is this my grumpy old man syndrome ruling me or is it fair for tax payers to expect a decent standard of workmanship for such works?
To top the lot, all these lorries and diggers have left my two crossovers battered an bruised. The council took a lot of money to lower the kerb stones and 'ordered' me not to drive over the path until I the crossovers were lowered. Now, after all the new pipes have been laid, the council don't want to know about the new slabs their contractors laid after I paid for the crossovers to be reinforced... they don't see them as trip hazards. Never mind that six slabs have been cracked / damaged as a result of the recent works.
St Albans Road from Barnet High Road to South Mimms was recently re-surfaced. As they usually do, the contractors / Highways people stuck up an advance notice warning road users of the duration of works etc etc.
I thought to myself, 'great, they'll level that b
d dip in the road'. This is an awkward little dip in the road surface which spans about 1.5/2m (at an angle to the road). On a bad day, it feels like it's gonna rip through your chassis; I can imagine a few cars lifting off from it too.A few days of inconvenience and the road is re-surfaced.
The dip is still there.
Scenario 2
Our road has been dug up by the water people to renew water pipes. Now that they've finished, it's a shame that our tidy-looking road has ended up with these back squares where the holes were dug and filled. Three weeks after this work was completed, a contractor for the gas board turns up and announces that they will be renewing the gas pipes on this street; more bleedin' holes.
For three weeks now, we've had the whole road turned into a bomb site full of piles of mud, holes every 2/3m and plant/machinery/equipment left overnight. The wet weather hasn't helped and tbf, the blokes have worked through the cold and wet (I've made 'em a few cups of tea). But now they're moving onto a different street, the 'filling' gang are here and the type1 crushed concrete has gone in and they're starting to finish of the surfaces... The road look f
king awful now.We've gone from a (smooth) nice looking street to one that resembles a patchwork quilt.
They say there are no plans to resuface the road.
Is this my grumpy old man syndrome ruling me or is it fair for tax payers to expect a decent standard of workmanship for such works?
To top the lot, all these lorries and diggers have left my two crossovers battered an bruised. The council took a lot of money to lower the kerb stones and 'ordered' me not to drive over the path until I the crossovers were lowered. Now, after all the new pipes have been laid, the council don't want to know about the new slabs their contractors laid after I paid for the crossovers to be reinforced... they don't see them as trip hazards. Never mind that six slabs have been cracked / damaged as a result of the recent works.
Scenario One:
Road sub structure fails. Council can't afford a full reconstruction so elect for a resurfacing. Contractor carries out work. Skid resistance improved. Problem remains. Nothing to do with poor workmanship.
Thinks of is as replacing your carpet to solve a broken floorboard.
Scenario Two:
Lack of interaction between agencies. All work carried out to highways standards (probably). Council cannot afford to resurface (or surface dress) the road.
I have no idea what crossovers are..
Edited as misread scenario two.
Road sub structure fails. Council can't afford a full reconstruction so elect for a resurfacing. Contractor carries out work. Skid resistance improved. Problem remains. Nothing to do with poor workmanship.
Thinks of is as replacing your carpet to solve a broken floorboard.
Scenario Two:
Lack of interaction between agencies. All work carried out to highways standards (probably). Council cannot afford to resurface (or surface dress) the road.
I have no idea what crossovers are..
Edited as misread scenario two.
Edited by Master Mischief on Sunday 6th December 14:43
The council don't care. Simple.
We have just had some chimps cut down the hedges over the back of our house. Hedges that neither needed to be cut back or were causing anyone an inconvenience. Yet knucklesheads have moved in with their tools and cut the lot back, and made a woeful job of it too. It nows looks like a bombsite and has removed any privacy for anyone, and will look a mess until the late spring when it will start to grow again...
I've emailed the council asking for an explantion, but as usual not one single person is willing to put their name on the line for being opened up and dignify me with a response...
We have just had some chimps cut down the hedges over the back of our house. Hedges that neither needed to be cut back or were causing anyone an inconvenience. Yet knucklesheads have moved in with their tools and cut the lot back, and made a woeful job of it too. It nows looks like a bombsite and has removed any privacy for anyone, and will look a mess until the late spring when it will start to grow again...
I've emailed the council asking for an explantion, but as usual not one single person is willing to put their name on the line for being opened up and dignify me with a response...
We just write to our local counciler. He sorted the issue we had within one day. The road mending people had come round dug out all the broken tarmac and replaced with good stuff. The removed stuff was just left in a pile outside our house blocking the path and most of the road. It stayed there for a week till we contacted the counciler and he found out that they had not been asked to quote for removal of waste material so they were just leaving it. next day it was gone.
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