Rural Road Repairs.

[Catweazle]

May not be happening.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26014054

[cologne2792]

Yes they're trying to do this in Dorset.
We have an official lane that runs by our house that was abandoned at least 40 years ago and as such we've concreted our section and the area below us has been looked after by the attached farm. The section above is now a woodland track that we've scalped.
In last year road repair scheme the council stopped a further quarter of a mile away and simply resurfaced around it.
Although the lane is shown on satnav as a loop road it is in reality access only to five properties and as such no doubt the council will try to make us responsible for the rest.
Words are being had with council.

[Riley Blue]

A question of priorities. Would you spend what roads budget you had repairing/resurfacing a rural lane used by only a handful of vehicles a day or would you use it to repair a major road used by tens of thousands?

[LovesSweetExile]

I'm glad about this and I look forward to the decreased tax.

[skyrover]

the money is better spent on motorway speed cameras and high speed rail

[Bill]

It'd probably help if they didn't spunk away what money they had on jetpatching that gets washed away again the next time it rains.

[Matthen]

Concrete them and leave them if its that expensive - reduce maintenance costs in the long run.

[aw51 121565]

skyrover said:

the money is better spent on motorway speed cameras and high speed rail

Different budgets ...

And different organisations ...

[OriginUnknown]

aw51 121565 said:

skyrover said:

the money is better spent on motorway speed cameras and high speed rail

Different budgets ...

And different organisations ...

Yes, but it all comes from the same big pot at the end of the taxpayers rainbow.
It's just a different allocation. Take some cash from the roads and blow it on a pointless train track or cameras.

[aka_kerrly]

Bill said:

It'd probably help if they didn't spunk away what money they had on jetpatching that gets washed away again the next time it rains.

This plus another factor that gets on my fking nerves, the council & utility companies not planning together.

There was a strip of the A46 near where I live which was in utterly dreadful condition with potholes that looked like they were created by land mines.

Eventually after months the highways agency/council went ahead and closed the road for a few weeks and did a proper job of resurfacing the road.

Why then after only a few months are the fking water board now hacking a great big trench on one side of the road and another contractor digging holes barely half a mile down the road.

It just seems a huge waste and we all know the contractors repairs will be a case of pack the crap they excavated back into the hole an put a 1cm skim of tarmac on top.

[Gixer]

Love the way they blame 4 bad winters. Really? Makes me laugh other country's roads don't self destruct in winter, even when they have much worse winters than us. Perhaps it's to do with the fact they build theirs properly in first place rather than wasting way more money in the long term with their short term cheap fixes.

My other gripe is that they have no money to maintain the roads but appear to have an unlimited budget to put in more traffic island etc - often on a road that's falling apart

[bobbo89]

aka_kerrly said:

This plus another factor that gets on my fking nerves, the council & utility companies not planning together.

They do plan together, councils enforce 3 year restrictions on utilities companies which stops them from doing any general maintenance work on newly surfaced roads and allowing them enough time to do anything before they go ahead and re-surface. What no-one can predict is when emergency work is required due to burst mains etc, which sadly happens quite often.

[aka_kerrly]

bobbo89 said:

aka_kerrly said:

This plus another factor that gets on my fking nerves, the council & utility companies not planning together.

They do plan together, councils enforce 3 year restrictions on utilities companies which stops them from doing any general maintenance work on newly surfaced roads and allowing them enough time to do anything before they go ahead and re-surface. What no-one can predict is when emergency work is required due to burst mains etc, which sadly happens quite often.

That's a fair explanation. You can't but wonder if the utility companies should also improve the quality of their repairs as well then to preserve the road.

There is another example of poor maintenance near where I live, a drain that always overflows and when there is enough rain the whole drain lifts including the tarmac around. I expect this is case of the council throwing £20k at the problem 10 times in 5 years rather than just spend £100k in one hit due to the ways budgets get manipulated to ensure maximum funding is available every April.

[nails1979]

The damaged roads round my way are mainly where utility company's have had it up and down several times and each time left it in a worse state than previously.
Why is this allowed to happen?

[bobbo89]

nails1979 said:

The damaged roads round my way are mainly where utility company's have had it up and down several times and each time left it in a worse state than previously.
Why is this allowed to happen?

Utilities companies used to have to pay the local authorities who carried out re-instatements for them. This money was often combined with a bit of their maintenance budget and much larger scale repairs made.

Now though, utilities companies carry out their own re-instatements which although these are checked by the LA, the only real way to check compaction of sub-base and depth of tarmac layed is to dig it back up again!