Essex Highways pothole policy

[Simpo Two]

This is good.

Over the last few weeks I've noticed an increasing number of potholes in the path of the tyres where the top 1-2" of surface has come off. If you don't see them you get quite a crash.

So I went to the ECC website, and found the 'report a pothole' page, and zoomed in to the map to report the worst one - and was pleased to see a little blue dot which means ECC has been notified about it. You click on the littl eblue dot and it says: 'This issue has been investigated, risk assessed and recorded in line with our Maintenance Strategy and we are in the process of scheduling works.'

Here it is, all 180 pages of it http://www.essexhighways.org/Uploads/Files/essex_h...

To save time I rang ECC Highways and asked them how long it would be before they fixed the pothole. They couldn't tell me, saying it depended on when the road was going to be resurfaced and if there were any other works going on. Fair enough, a logical prioritisation. 'So what's the worst case scenario timewise?' I asked the man. 'Worst case scenario?' he replied. 'Yes, in other words what is the longest it could take to get this pothole fixed?' I asked. 'I can't tell you, I don't know' said the man.

OK so we may have to live with this pothole for years, in the tyre path, getting bigger and bigger. So I asked him about the compensation policy... for when drivers don't see the pothole in the road for which ECC is responsible and buckle a wheel or burst a tyre. 'There's no compensation policy' he said, 'you'd have to make a claim, like you would an insurance claim.' 'But' I replied, 'then you will turn to me and say "Pah, you could have damaged that wheel anywhere, prove it was our pothole that caused it"'. The man agreed and said the burden of proof is with the driver.

'So to prove that the damage was casued by your pothole I'd have to drive around with four Go-Pros, one pointing at each wheel...' He didn't disagree.

'OK I have a final idea' I said, being nothing if not helpful and resourceful. 'How about you pop out with a can of orange paint, and mark the pothole, so drivers have a better chance of seeing and avoiding it.' He replied that wasn't possible.

Rarely have I spoken to such a useless person. I felt like asking him what he actually did, and whether perhaps he might like to get a bucket of tarmac and go fill in a fking pothole, but thought this wouldn't get me any futher.

So it seems that Essex CC Highways can basically do fk all about potholes, don't know when they will be repaired and won't pay out if you damage your car on one. But their website is very good and their PDF is very long. And that's the most important thing it seems.

[Simpo Two]

XMT said:

INo idea what can be done about corruption and senseless money wasting at such a level but I sure hope someone comes up with something

It didn't improve my mood to be held up at traffic lights around a parked ECC Highways contractor lorry not doing anything, and then be held up again going back 2.5 hours later by the same lorry still there, still not doing anything, and the driver eating a sandwich. This was 3 miles from the pothole.

It seems to be that the ambition of many people to sit in an office talking bks and achieving nothing whilst on a good salary and pension.

[Simpo Two]

99dndd said:

He listens to your concerns, apologies constantly, commits to nothing, asks you if there's anything else he can help with and thanks you for calling.

That's his job and he could probably think of many ways of sorting potholes but that's not his job.

If that's true it's a pretty worrying state of affairs. I see no logic in paying someone a presumably decent salary and pension to do nothing when the money could be spent on someone to fix potholes. Perhaps the answer is that people in county councils will only feel they have achieved perfection when they can get away with doing nothing at all?

[Simpo Two]

And of course it's not a business. Perhaps a little exposure to the white heat of commerce might sort out the chaff.

[Simpo Two]

Red Devil said:

Can you explain exactly how the 'white heat of commerce' will solve the problem?
To whom will you give the necessary responsibility and powers to commission the work required?

A1: He will lose his job and his salary can be spent on something useful.

A2: I'd tell him to go out with a pick-up full of tarmac and fill in potholes. If he doesn't want to, I'd sack him and hire someone who can.

There are far too many people sitting behind desks doing jack-all and costing everyone else money.

[Simpo Two]

SmilerFTM said:

If they didn't pay someone to answer calls from yourself and others I'm pretty much 100% certain you'd be complaining like hell that you can't contact anyone to talk to about the issues rather than complaining about someone who you can call to ask about them.

If the issues were addressed efficiently in the first place there would have been no need to contact them. If we saw/hit a pothole we could relax safe in the knowledge it would be fixed within a week or two.

Interestingly today I went past the site and was pleased to see a Ringway Jacobs truck and personnel repairing the pothole.

Perhaps the fact it's 100 yards from a Ringway Jacobs depot had something to with it. Or maybe the Council was being bombarded with calls?

And if it was being repaired today, why did Mr Numpty not have that information when asked for it? Had he said 'Let me see - ah yes, that one is due to be fixed on 21 Feb' all would have been well.

Something is broken - if not with the maintenance team then the Council who sit in the middle and collect the rent.

[Simpo Two]

I didn't 'argue' with the numpty, merely attempted (very patiently) to get information from him or propose workarounds. I hadn't realised the only word in his vocabulary was 'no'.

However, two days I was passing the offending spot and to my great surprise there was a Ringworm Jacobs lorry and crew repairing the road!

I wondered whether this was because of my communication, or because Mr No had been beseiged with calls and finally decided to take action, or because the local Ringworm Jacobs depot is 100 yards from the pothole and the manager of said facility was tired of smashing his nearside wheels into it.

Either way, it is interesting to reflect that less than two weeks after Essex CC Highways said they had no idea when the pothole would be repaired, it was repaired.

The repair team however didn't repair the other pothole 200 yards along, which means they will have to send the lorry and crew out again specially sometime in the future which will cost more than if they'd done it at the same time, but on the bright side, at least one is done and so drivers only have one more to try to avoid.

On a technical note, I received an e-mail from ECC - rather more helpful than Mr No - which said: 'A factor which can make potholes more prevalent as this time of year is due to salting of the roads, salt can be very destructive to the road surface'. Is that right? Any tarmac experts in today?