Ban Surface dressing of roads, sign the Petition

[Hacienda71]

Cheshire East no longer maintain their roads it is subcontracted to a private Co. Which may explain why their top dressing has improved over the last couple of years. They use a computer modelling programme to decide which roads to do.
I talked to one of their chaps a year or so ago who admitted to me that the budget was insufficient and it was really a fire fighting exercise. Top dressing was seen as a cost effective short term fix.
All that said I hate the bloody stuff.

 

[guitarpete247]

I remember when I was at school (40 years ago) I had a paper round. All was good until they pebble dashed the road. The heavy paper bike was lethal on wet, glassy pebbles they used in and around Doncaster in those days.
They did the Green, out here where I now live, about 3 years ago. I'm still getting a car full of granite chippings and we are still having them brought into the house.


Any way. I filled in petition last night and clicked confirmation this morning.

 

[spen666]

Ban this and pay 3 times the council tax? Strange the cost issue isn't mentioned

 

[Origamist]

Part of the problem is the lack of a proper sweeping regimen, IME. There are two stretches of road on my commute that have had surface dressing in the last 3 months and the surplus gravel can prove to be a bigger hazard than some of the holes and cracks that were previously there...

 

[screenman]

Part of the problem is the lack of a proper sweeping regimen, IME. There are two stretches of road on my commute that have had surface dressing in the last 3 months and the surplus gravel can prove to be a bigger hazard than some of the holes and cracks that were previously there...

You are bang on right there, according to a large national company whose owners I chatted to about this the roads should be swept 3 times after top dressing, but because the councils highways seldom check they often miss 1 or 2 to save/make more money on the job. Civil servants not doing the job properly, so why should they was what I was told.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

Signed

They just did our road, what a mess.

 

[I like Skol]

There is an alternative to the tar/chippings/roller/sweep method that my local authority used on my lane and quite a few other roads across the borough several years ago. They used it mostly on the less major roads but it appears to have stood the test of time well so far for what is at best a patch up job of an otherwise end of life surface. I don't know how well it would stand up to high traffic use but on the low and medium use roads I have witnessed it's application to, it does seem quite effective at halting the break-up of the surface and preventing damage from the freeze/thaw cycle that wreaks havoc on older roads.

The treatment consists of some kind of emulsion of tar, finer chippings and maybe a solvent too. It is spread on the surface almost like a thick paint or polyfilla and is dry/set within hours with none of the loose residual gravel that is the issue you all have with the more common method. I'm no expert and have no idea of the comparative cost of this alternative method but on the face of it does appear to be an elegant solution to the problem of road surface dressing that lasts well, is quick to apply and provides a firm, grippy surface that does not polish up along the driven line in hot weather. Perhaps the petition should have suggested an alternative like this instead of, as someone has suggested early on, just asking for the chippings to be banned?

 

[screenman]

Adrian, I was stating the guys words, in my opinion 2 wrongs do not make it right.

 

[cd365]

Signed

 

[Hip Priest]

They did it to two of my favourite fast roads in Northumberland recently. It's a right bummer when you're looking forward to a fast, flowing country lane and you end up having to tiptoe round it at 10mph in order to stay shiny side up.

 

[I like Skol]

They did it to two of my favourite fast roads in Northumberland recently. It's a right bummer when you're looking forward to a fast, flowing country lane and you end up having to tiptoe round it at 10mph in order to stay shiny side up.

Wuss! Pick up the speed, hang on tight and enjoy the ride (that's what I do ). They did one of the roads on my commute about a year ago and it was all good as long as I remembered to wear my shades to protect from the thrown stones.

 

[John the Monkey]

Perhaps the petition should have suggested an alternative like this instead of, as someone has suggested early on, just asking for the chippings to be banned?

Or called for it to be used appropriately (not on roads with severe camber, not on roads with low traffic volumes, not on roads the council/contractor are unwilling to sweep, etc etc) that temporary limits are enforced, that the public are better informed[1] about why this treatment is used, I could go on.

The problem (for me) is that the petitioner seems not to understand the process, the effect traffic has on it, or that it can be a good, possibly the best, option in some circumstances.

[1] Although, as I pointed out (I think) earlier, it's staggeringly easy to find this out.

 

[PK99]

Yep - I saw it in both the Pas De Calais, and Champagne-Ardennes. I didn't see much traffic on the roads in the former, but in the latter (on, I think, the D1, a fairly major link to other towns from where we were staying) drivers were obeying the temporary limit through the treated sections. I think we saw it on the D3 too (again, the section I'm remembering had good adherence to the temporary limit), but I might be confusing the two roads.

Application on those roads was ongoing as we were driving on them, and the traffic was being routed around a vehicle trailing the application vehicles. That might have helped move traffic across the newly laid surface, bedding it in more evenly? (In the applications I've seen in the UK, the whole road section is closed until application is completed).

I can only remember drifted chippings being an issue in one section (a corner of a small road in the Pas De Calais) but obviously, as a tourist, I had no idea how recently the road had been treated. Signage was generally pretty good, with ample warning of the change in surface, and speed limit, in both the Pas De Calais and Champagne-Ardennes.

a friend we were staying with in Normandy last week commented that is is common place there -- with exactly the same issues as here.

 

[PK99]

-
The problem (for me) is that the petitioner seems not to understand the process, the effect traffic has on it, or that it can be a good, possibly the best, option in some circumstances.
.

On a road surface that is not potholed but has cracks or incipient cracks, tar spraying is the best option - leaving the cracks unprotected, allows in water and a winter of freeze/thaw results in potholes

 

[david k]

just resurfaced our road and there was nothing wrong with it????

Oddly, the road round the corner is terrible, but hasnt been done?