It's 'Top Dressing' season

[derrick]

And in six months time the roads are worse than they were before they did it.

 

[mcshroom]

Two years ago i had to abandon some of the back roads round hre because they put the gravel down 4 inches deep and left it for nearly 6 months. I almost came off (on a tourer with 35mm tyres) when I lent into a corner and dug into the drift like a sand dune. Those roads still have a pile of stones dwon the middle as they are only just wide enough for one car, so nothing ever drives in the centre.

The other nasty one Cumbria CC do is spot dressing, where you'll be riding down a perfectly good twisty road and suddenly hit a small patch of loose gravel, usually on the bits that need most grip (as the cars tend to rip those bits up).

 

[Globalti]

why do they not use smaller chippings, I have asked this before but not had a sensible reply yet.

Could it be that for quarries to chip granite any smaller would be massively more expensive?

 

[Fnaar]

Miss Goodbody has asked me to pop round later and apply some hot liquid (and some grit) to her front driveway.

 

[Dayvo]

I detest the bloody stuff. It makes the road virtually unrideable on two wheels and has cost me two car windscreens.

Serves you right: you shouldn't be riding your car on two wheels!

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

They're supposed to have started resurfacing one of the roads, I use on my commute to work, this morning.
(Ferry Lane, from Altofts, via 'Stanley Ferry', to Aberford Road)

I rode along it, at 07:00, & there was no sign of any machinery, barring a surface-planer parked up
I'm wondering if that implies a full resurface, rather than just a tar & chip
(I think there's 55 marked potholes, in a 1/2 mile stretch, ranging from 5" long, to almost 3 foot)

 

[totallyfixed]

Could it be that for quarries to chip granite any smaller would be massively more expensive?

I have no idea, but they are certainly chucking money away by not sweeping up loose chippings and re-using them. Add to that it seems like a false economy if larger stones do not adequately cover the tar, we have all seen the bare patches that develop quite soon after a road has been chipped.

 

[John the Monkey]

I wonder if the petition is still going?

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/ban-surface-dressing-of-roads-sign-the-petition.162878/page-2

 

[Fnaar]

Top dressing? Olive oil, lemon juice, bit of balsamic and loadsa crushed garlic

 

[Moodyman]

The coarse surface is very reassuring (on a bicycle) in the depth of winter when roads are damp and greasy.

 

[Drago]

...for a few months until the slick bitumen surface beneath becomes exposed.

Any benefit is highly transient to say the least.

 

[screenman]

I like the chipping season.

 

[Eribiste]

We in Worcestershire are currently suffering this ludicrous abomination too. It wasn't good enough in the twentieth century; it's downright barbaric in the twenty-first. Potholes are not fixed by this nefarious practice, merely masked from view, but the Council persists in trotting out the old mendacious dogma about how marvelous it is.

I'm not so keen myself.

 

[screenman]

Having just spent 5 days in Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestshire and all those between them and Lincolnshire, it is official we have the worst most disgusting roads and verges of the lot. Lincolnshire councils and highways should hang their head in shame.

 

[Drago]

You should try Northamptonshire. Drive into the county and as soon as you cross the border it's like the back roads of Basra. Drive through and out the other end into Bucks and the improvement is almost magical as you cross the county line.