So, the state of the roads...
So, the state of the roads...
Author
Discussion

Mr Wolf

Original Poster:

252 posts

167 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
They just seem to be crumbling away. Potholes, although a standard complaint really are becoming more of a major hazard than an annoyance.

My theory is that nothing will get repaired until April when new budgets are agreed.

Maybe it's just our council (Warrington) that have decided to really cut back on road repairs or are others noticing how bad they are becoming?



Edited by Mr Wolf on Wednesday 13th February 20:38

RivieraBlue

119 posts

164 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
Yes they are bad.

JonnyFive

29,904 posts

219 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
The roads in Guildford are shockingly bad at the moment, saw an advert on the back of a bus today.. 'Get involed - Report the potholes' - fking stupid idea, the whole road network is fked up.

Scootersp

4,125 posts

218 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
I think not only is is budget related but until the cold and wet weather goes then I think patches will just break up instantly. When (if!) they are done in April/May then at least you get around until the next really cold snap.

For me Fittleworth near Petworth is somewhere that sticks out as having deteriorated a lot in the last few months.

McWigglebum3rd

32,414 posts

234 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
Budget cuts

They can either cut back on stuff like diversity alignment officers that no one will notice if they vanish or they can cut back on stuff people will notice and blame the evil tories

B19GRR

1,980 posts

286 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
My commute appears to take me through a third world diversion at the moment, lots of slushy ice covering the worst potholes isn't helping much either as I slither around on my little 125. There's a stretch I travel on that was resurfaced in November, well the splash of tar and gravel approach to resurfacing, most of that gravel has now disappeared so the surface is rougher than ever, kudos to the council for spending the money on such a worthy job!

Cheers,
Rob

s p a c e m a n

12,127 posts

178 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
I've noticed nothing unusual, there are just as bad as they normally are around this time of year. All of the temporary repairs have fallen apart and will be bodged up as soon as the weather improves until next winter or before if they fail earlier.


WHERES ALL MY ROAD TAX MONEYS GO?!?! wink

Jasandjules

72,632 posts

259 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
s p a c e m a n said:
WHERES ALL MY ROAD TAX MONEYS GO?!?! wink
Indeed.

stevebear

92 posts

194 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
Poole and Bournemouth roads are bleedin awful but then they always have been. Moved there in 98 and bit of a shock that they're so bad having come from living in Basingstoke.

New POD

3,851 posts

180 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
Over in Sefton (North Merseyside) there are holes that would take a fking horse hole. And Don't try driving from Maghull to Formby in the dark, if you want to avoid destroying your suspension.

Pablo68

910 posts

165 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
A63 coming out of Hull - which is to all intents an purposes a motorway - is currently more like a rutted farm track in places. It's downright bloody dangerous hitting sodding great deep potholes at 70mph (ish)

Playsatan

584 posts

257 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
It ranges from an inconvenience to bloody annoying when in the car but move much closer to outright deadly when on a motorbike in the rain and the dark. And I pay road tax for that too.

Some roads round here have conga lines of cars diving from side to side trying to pick a line through them.

Speed_Demon

2,662 posts

218 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
It's that time of year, temperatures dipping below 0, then over, then below. Destroys the roads. It still stuns me how fast it happens though, as does how terrible the repairs are; a repaired pot hole near me lasted on the approach to a roundabout lasted less than a day before it lost it's integrity. Being in a small light car I understand I am going to get moved around a bit, but it's ridiculous when the roads get into this state.

vonhosen

40,597 posts

247 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
Road tax has not existed for decades.

anonymous-user

84 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
If you see a hole or a defect, report it - all councils will have a reporting page on the website. The roads guys can't fix what they don't know about. It's not practical for gangs to be driving random patterns looking for holes.

The are some rapid repair techniques where roving gangs are effective but that relies heavily on the weather - repeated freezing/unfreezing will very quickly lift repairs. Maintenance budgets (completely separate from improvement budgets) are generally well programmed (by engineers not politicians) to take in to account seasonal variations. But the damage to our roads in this weather is exponential to that in warm dry weather.

Boring answer from a highways engineer.


ninjacost

980 posts

252 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
becoming a third world country its a bloody disgrace !

*Al*

3,830 posts

252 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
Done nearly 1000 miles in the last few days mostly on the M4, M5 (top to bottom) and M6, the motorways are terrible with actual potholes! Most of these were on the southern sections of the M5.

tercelgold

969 posts

187 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
Playsatan said:
It ranges from an inconvenience to bloody annoying when in the car but move much closer to outright deadly when on a motorbike in the rain and the dark. And I pay road tax for that too.

Some roads round here have conga lines of cars diving from side to side trying to pick a line through them.
Somehow it's become the norm to have a conga line, once people get used to the locations of the car destroying ones it goes quite smoothly. It's sad to see 'outsiders' try and take the normal exit line on a roundabout only to pull up into the handy bus stop once they've recovered from the impact. They soon keep in line then.

roystinho

3,767 posts

205 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
Can't believe some of the one's I've hit tonight going to recover my mrs' car she abandoned. Looked like a puddle so went through it relatively slowly, but at one point thought I'd driven over a small land mine

Altrezia

8,742 posts

241 months

Wednesday 13th February 2013
quotequote all
Massive new holes around near us too (north hampshire).

Not fun in a mini/elise - no suspension travel!