Wednesday 20th January 2010

Plague Of Potholes Will Cost Millions

Recent cold snap means more potholes - and councils can't keep up with the repairs

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Not all potholes come with gloves

Repairing potholes created by the recent severe cold weather could cost tens of millions to repair, local councils have revealed.

Drivers whose journeys have been disrupted by the recent spell of frozen weather are now set to face further problems as local government comes to terms with the damage caused by the extreme conditions. Potholes have appeared up and down the country, leaving the nation's roads scarred and potentially dangerous, and councils struggling to keep up with the amount of repairs. One road in Scarborough was so badly pothole-ridden that it had to be temporarily closed.

With repairs set to continue long into 2010, local authorities are bracing themselves for a wave of compensation claims, as motorists look to claim back for the damage caused. The average repair bill for pothole damage is £240, and six per cent of all of Britain's cars are expected to suffer from some type of problem caused by potholes. This is normally a burst tyre, but axle and suspension damage is also common.

But even with councils working flat out, a road network scarred by hastily repaired 'patching' - which is vulnerable to pothole damage - has made their job almost impossible. Fed-up motorists are being advised by campaigning site potholes.co.uk to give no quarter, however, and to recoup the cost of insurance claims with compensation from councils rather than via insurance claims.

Still, every cloud and all that - Paul Butcher from Instamac, a company which supplies pothole-filling materials, has said he expects his sales to double or even triple.

[Vipers]

Just a quick line. When you drive over a pothole, apart from cursing, report it to your local authority.

If you dont report it, they dont know about it, and as far as I know, you have no claim against the local authority for damage to your vehicle.

If they know about it, you can claim.

If they don't know about it, they can't repair it.

I have reported 3 recently to my local council in Aberdeenshire, all have now been filled in in a timely manner. You can do this on line with your local authority.

Apart from that, drive safely guys.

[FishFace]

Don't be sensible. Better to slag the local authority off and try and sue them at every opportunity by expecting them to spend their unlimited cash on roads!

[mat205125]

Plague Of Potholes Will Cost Millions

A good thing that the motorist contributes BILLIONS to the economy then.

[jbi]

yup... 45 billion contributed by the motorist per year

4 billion a year actually spent on the roads

thetaxguide.co.uk claims

"So Where Does All the Money Go?
This is not a particularly easy question to answer. Frequently, tax rises are presented as necessary in order to cover the cost of a related expenditure. For example, the London Congestion Charge was supposed to pay for new upgrades to the Underground network. However, there is really no way of telling whether or not this is the case as all tax income ultimately ends up in one of two places, depending on the tax.
DVLA road tax and fuel duty both end up in the coffers of the Exchequer, along with your income tax and companies' corporation tax. Council parking fees, along with the Congestion Charge if you live in London, are paid to the Local Authority, and are topped up by council tax and a subsidy from central government."

Edited by jbi on Wednesday 20th January 08:01

[focus man]

Lets get one thing straight here...most of the pot holes are where they have done quick repairs from previous attempts,a quick dollop of tar job done,so its no surprise that after snow and ice they break up,its that same old thing again called cost cutting,did you know that when they lay tar they use as little bitumen as poss to save money,now if the content were to be increased the extra bitumen & other additives would allow for expansion and contraction of the surface to reduce breakup.they(councils,goverment) save money short term but it will cost big time later(via you and me)....now that sounds familiar!!!!!!!!!!

[OnlyMX5ives]

£240 a pothole !

I'll do it for £230 - where do I sign up ?

[juansolo]

focus man said:

they(councils,goverment) save money short term but it will cost big time later(via you and me)....now that sounds familiar!!!!!!!!!!

To be fair all companies do that, it's not just limited to the public sector. Everyone seems remarkably short sighted in that respect. We must make savings NOW regardless of future risk. It's what senior management and shareholders want to see. Lower costs and more profit in the short term. Then just hope the corner cutting doesn't come back and bite you in the arse a few years later.

Edited by juansolo on Wednesday 20th January 08:24

[felga]

The problem is as focusman said, it`s usally the same place where the pothole was, prevoiusly digged up and filler or just tarmac wansn`t layed in first place. Is there anyone that do the quality check after road was resurfaced or repaired ?

I`m sure all of You know well your local road which was perfectly flat but they had to dig to connect up new build block or repair pipe.

Ok, they have to that`s fine, but WTF after they patch it up, it`s like rally SS not a road anymore. Id do it better myself and the point is not that they are not using proper materials or don`t have tools, nobody check their work or does it stty way.

The winter have nothing to do with that, they build budget roads and now it`s backfiring, europe has winter as well and I never seen hole like these on german a or b roads.

If I have a second i`ll go and take few shots of holes that are withing 1mile of my house and they are main roads with high density traffic.

A

[PetrolAholic]

Vipers said:

Just a quick line. When you drive over a pothole, apart from cursing, report it to your local authority.

If you dont report it, they dont know about it, and as far as I know, you have no claim against the local authority for damage to your vehicle.

If they know about it, you can claim.

If they don't know about it, they can't repair it.

I have reported 3 recently to my local council in Aberdeenshire, all have now been filled in in a timely manner. You can do this on line with your local authority.

Apart from that, drive safely guys.

I do know a guy who drove over a pothole at 30mph (the speed limit was 30) and he bent his alloy. He claimed the full amount for repair off the council but they bodged the hole, and now it's back again.

And trust me, my local council doesn't have the intelligence to have an online report system and getting through to complain about something like this is near on impossible.

Lincolnshire - One of the largest counties, the county with the most lorries (food transport).

And the only county in britain not to have a dual carriageway.

The county with the largest amount of road accident related deaths, and all they do is "Stick a speed camera there"

Edited by PetrolAholic on Wednesday 20th January 08:29

[pistonlager]

focus man said:

Lets get one thing straight here...most of the pot holes are where they have done quick repairs from previous attempts,a quick dollop of tar job done,so its no surprise that after snow and ice they break up,its that same old thing again called cost cutting,did you know that when they lay tar they use as little bitumen as poss to save money,now if the content were to be increased the extra bitumen & other additives would allow for expansion and contraction of the surface to reduce breakup.they(councils,goverment) save money short term but it will cost big time later(via you and me)....now that sounds familiar!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe they should prime the pothole with UniBond first!

[Belfast Boy]

Not being funny but the roads in the U.K are piss poor!
I live near the Surrey/Kent boarder, and I feel sorry for the Kent lot because their roads are worse again!

Thats why I run a car for winter and one for summer.
The potholes around here are not so bad in bouncey high profile rubber 205x60x15 and gives plenty of grip in the snow when dropped to 20psi than on my summer car's 245x40x16

[Arun_D]

focus man said:

Lets get one thing straight here...most of the pot holes are where they have done quick repairs from previous attempts,a quick dollop of tar job done,so its no surprise that after snow and ice they break up,its that same old thing again called cost cutting,did you know that when they lay tar they use as little bitumen as poss to save money,now if the content were to be increased the extra bitumen & other additives would allow for expansion and contraction of the surface to reduce breakup.they(councils,goverment) save money short term but it will cost big time later(via you and me)....now that sounds familiar!!!!!!!!!!

The local 'grand canyon' style pot hole that I'm currently avoiding on a daily basis must have lasted less than a week before the repair opened up again, and that wasn't during our snow periods. I must say they were pretty sharp to repair it (2 or 3 days max) when it first emerged, but has been open for a few weeks again now. I must get onto the council to sort it.

Edited by Arun_D on Wednesday 20th January 08:46

[wab172uk]

There's a couple wheel breakers on my journey to work & back every day.

[BoRED S2upid]

Councils working flat out? A council has never worked flat out EVER! are they out there 12 hours a day filling them in? Nope.

And as for the money they have stockpiled our speeding fines or been using them for other purposes for decades likewise road tax. If every penny of Speeding and Road Tax income went into the road network we would have one of the best in the world!

[Carpmart]

They really are bad around Mid Bedfordshire where I reside. I agree with most other comments that they are often the same pot holes appearing again after sub standard repairs. Seems a ridiculous waste of money!

Worse still, a newly re-tarmacked road (last 3 months) near me has lost 30% of its surface in the recent snow and ice period. This is over a mile or so stretch. As far as I can make out, the contractor who did this wants suing as this is definitely not fit for purpose!

[Oddball RS]

Lets stop defending councils without thought, they have many staff etc who drive on the same roads as us as well as paid survey teams they should know where problems are - AND we pay a huge amount for the use of their roads, they should be in better condition in the first place. Holes are the reult of water getting into cracks in the road and freezing, that and poor road repairs, better roads fewer holes fewer complaints.

Also i don't call a bloke with a bucket of tarmac and the back of a shovel - 'working flat out'

It was on my local news lastnight that Barnsley Council will have to find £200,000 to repair the damage in their borough, lets get this into focus, it costs £50k give or take to send a gritter on a full route, and the 2nd tier management even in small boroughs are on £100-£120 per year - go figure.

So if they cut down on the steering committee's and the focus groups and paint for bus and cycle lanes, i think they can manage it.

[G_T]

For as long as the cost of repairing potholes is less than the reimbursement of damages they will not get repaired.

Solution?

Everytime you sustain any damage to your car take a picture of the hole and file a claim.

Once it becomes economically viable they will have no choice.

[newdogg06]

Oddball RS said:

Also i don't call a bloke with a bucket of tarmac and the back of a shovel - 'working flat out'

.... the 2nd tier management even in small boroughs are on £100-£120 per year - go figure.

I take it you mean £100-£120 thousand a year?

Totally agree with you though. It is terrible around my area of Surrey and it seems to make no difference if it is an affluent area or not. The result however seems to be the cost of the damage as the cars tend to be top-end around here. One 10" deep pothole on Saturday saw 5 cars lined up on the kerb near here with spares being put on, apart from one very unhappy chap with a '59 plate RR Sport on I think 20" rims, both nearside ones smashed to buggery. Looked like he was on his way to a wedding too...

[TEKNOPUG]

I believe that Essex County Council released a statement saying that they weren't going to repair the pot-holes as they act as "traffic calming".....

[raf_gti]

PetrolAholic said:

Vipers said:

Just a quick line. When you drive over a pothole, apart from cursing, report it to your local authority.

If you dont report it, they dont know about it, and as far as I know, you have no claim against the local authority for damage to your vehicle.

If they know about it, you can claim.

If they don't know about it, they can't repair it.

I have reported 3 recently to my local council in Aberdeenshire, all have now been filled in in a timely manner. You can do this on line with your local authority.

Apart from that, drive safely guys.

I do know a guy who drove over a pothole at 30mph (the speed limit was 30) and he bent his alloy. He claimed the full amount for repair off the council but they bodged the hole, and now it's back again.

And trust me, my local council doesn't have the intelligence to have an online report system and getting through to complain about something like this is near on impossible.

Lincolnshire - One of the largest counties, the county with the most lorries (food transport).

And the only county in britain not to have a dual carriageway.

The county with the largest amount of road accident related deaths, and all they do is "Stick a speed camera there"

Edited by PetrolAholic on Wednesday 20th January 08:29

What a let down.

I just phoned Lincs Council to report an almost wheel sized crater and was answered promptly by a polite, efficient young lad!

I'm the 2nd person to report it this morning and he has assured me it will be dealt with asap which on the face of it is a very impressive service.

Unfortunatly the crater is on a B road which is no doubt way down the pecking order (understandably) but driving into it last night was the worst 'non crash' sound I've ever heard in a car before.