briantrumpet
Legendary Member
- Location
- Devon & Die
Claiming compensation from Highways — Drain Cover (gully grate) damage
- Thread starter cool_hand
- Start date
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Pross
Veteran
One thing to note is that those standards are for motorways and trunk roads (although local highway authorities often 'adopt' them or use them as the basis for their own standards). Hampshire's own technical guidance note for drainage can be found here with gully gratings being covered on TG8-1 page 21. This bit is quite interesting "Pedestrian/cycle-friendly mesh gratings (D400 Group 4) shall be used in urban areas including any cycleway or designated cycle route. " (my bold). That reads to me like all gratings in urban areas should be mesh type rather than just those in pedestrian or cycle areas (I'm not sure if that's what they intended). However, their answer to that would probably be that is their policy for new works and doesn't apply to areas that predate the policy.
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Pross
Veteran
That would generally be fine but having the gully within the dropped kerbs makes it questionable. That said, it looks like the dropped kerbs are a more recent addition as they are lighter coloured.
Edit - I've just seen the post with the photos. It looks to me like the driveway has been widened at some point and the gully didn't get relocated.
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annedonnelly
Girl from the North Country
- Location
- Canonbie
That's what I do, e.g. on a bus route I'd mention that a cyclist could fall off in front of a bus. Or if I'm reporting a problem with a pavement I'd mention that it was near a sheltered housing scheme or similar.
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
That grate is the correct way round. The one outside my house is just like that and it's at the edge of my drive. I've not managed to get stuck in it in 30 years as I've turned into my drive.
Thanks for providing the information. I have no personal experience of attempting to persuade a local authority to reimburse for damage to a vehicle but in my opinion you stand very little chance of redress or cost recovery from HCC. The drain looks correctly installed and is no doubt designed and manufactured to the relevant BSEN/BS standard. The slots have to be large enough to pass a given volume of run off water, they could not be narrower within the same area.
Within Hampshire is the New Forest with its huge number of cattle grids, if you were to attempt a similar manoeuvre the consequences would be far worse.
Without trying to be clever, put it down to experience and move on is my suggestion.
Alien8
Senior Moment
- Location
- (A little bit north of) Cambridge
It seems that the basis of your claim should not be the type of grating, but rather that it shouldn't be in front of a dropped kerb.
Assuming the entrance has been widened, you would need to find out from the approving authority whether the conditions included relocating the drain and take it from there.
Good luck!
Assuming the entrance has been widened, you would need to find out from the approving authority whether the conditions included relocating the drain and take it from there.
Good luck!
OP
OP
cool_hand
Über Member
This may or may not have any significance but I audited the gully grates in my road.
I live in a Cul-de-sac.
There are 3 grates used in the road.
The larger grate that damaged my wheel.
Then there are 2 smaller grates (45 x 45cm).
One has safety splits and the other is completely open.
However there are a couple things to note:
The width of grate’s opening is 4 cm – this makes it more difficult for the wheel to jam in the grate, there’s more leeway for tipping the angle of the wheel before it might damage the rim.
Also to note is the grates are angled at a diagonal of 45 degrees - this makes it more unlikely that your front wheel will drop into the grate.
My Cul-de-sac joins what I would call a longer connecting road, basically the same as the Cul-de-sac in width but has a higher level of traffic by its nature. All of the gully gates are smaller and feature the safety splits. This is also true of the main roads near me – it is only in the Cul-de-sac where I come across this larger more hazardous type of grate.
I live in a Cul-de-sac.
There are 3 grates used in the road.
The larger grate that damaged my wheel.
Then there are 2 smaller grates (45 x 45cm).
One has safety splits and the other is completely open.
However there are a couple things to note:
The width of grate’s opening is 4 cm – this makes it more difficult for the wheel to jam in the grate, there’s more leeway for tipping the angle of the wheel before it might damage the rim.
Also to note is the grates are angled at a diagonal of 45 degrees - this makes it more unlikely that your front wheel will drop into the grate.
My Cul-de-sac joins what I would call a longer connecting road, basically the same as the Cul-de-sac in width but has a higher level of traffic by its nature. All of the gully gates are smaller and feature the safety splits. This is also true of the main roads near me – it is only in the Cul-de-sac where I come across this larger more hazardous type of grate.
OP
OP
cool_hand
Über Member
This was something that I noted, that it makes the chances of the grate causing damage higher when it is against a dropped kerb. However, I did a test with the same grate against a kerb and there was still the potential for the grate to damage the rim (the kerb didn't stop the wheel falling into the grate) although your less likely to try and turn your bike around in the road if the kerb is raised.
steveindenmark
Legendary Member
I reported 2 potholes close to home, here in the Danish countryside. 2 week later a crew turned up and re tarmaced 2.6km of road. I thought it was overkill. 😁
The following year the TDF came past my door. Months prior to that every road for miles around that needed work was resurfaced. They still look great.
They don't mess around in Denmark.
The following year the TDF came past my door. Months prior to that every road for miles around that needed work was resurfaced. They still look great.
They don't mess around in Denmark.
I wonder if that’s the approach we need in S. Wiltshire, try and get the tdf as there is no sign of new asphalt to repair pot holes. In recent years they where they repair a small area but leave a small pot hole only a few feet away.
- Location
- Inside my skull
Did the pothole grate on your nerves?
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Ross Kemp had a word with them.
lazybloke
Ginger biscuits and cheddar
- Location
- Leafy Surrey
No, he asked Chris Rea to time-travel back 100 years or so, and get a better sub-base laid when the road was originally built.
Back in reality, for 26 years I've been carefully avoiding the worst design of drains on my road, but in the last year they all got replaced with a safer version. Just a few million pot holes to fix, and then i'll be happy.
