It's 'Top Dressing' season

[PeteXXX]

Quite a few of my local roads have just been Top Dressed (I believe that is the correct term for spraying tar on the road and throwing grit onto it).

These pics are the main(ish) road at the end of my Close.

Treacherous riding today as I popped out for a cheeky 20 miles before w*rk. Slippery as a slippery thing to corner and brake on!
It won't be long before the cars will flick most of the loose stuff onto the bike paths alongside the roads, but it will no doubt be a lot longer before the council come and sweep it off them!

 

[Vapin' Joe]

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

 

[Kestevan]

Yep, they've just done the bypass in Elland. Speed is supposed to be limited to 20mph while it clears, but no-one was taking any notice yesterday. 50+ mph passes spraying loose chippings was not pleasant.

Think I'll take the steeper back road way home tonight.

 

[Keith Oates]

It also chips the paint on the down tube which is not so good AFAIC.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Drago]

All it does is provide an abrasive medium to further accelerate wear on the road. Horrible, pointless stuff.

 

[Svendo]

The road outside mine up to Lumbutts was done 10 days ago. TBF they've done a reasonable job of initial rolling and it's been swept at least twice since, so there's not too much in the way of 'gravel drifts'.

The Long Causeway from Heptonstall to Burnley was in the process of being done last week and I ignored the 'road closed' signs and enjoyed riding over the unrolled sections, which meant wiping the sticky gravel off the tyres once in a while and the down tube once home. Not a problem as on the old commuter.

BTW I think I passed you @ColinJ on the way downhill to Red Lees Rd. Only realised it was you when I looked back and thought 'I recognise that red Cannondale' and saw your faded red backpack! I afraid I didn't fancy going back up through the gravel to say hello & warn you about the road.

 

[ianrauk]

Damn I really despise that stuff.

 

[Arjimlad]

I went on a 10-miler on the way to collect my son from Explorers only to find that the last downhill stretch - Coxgrove Hill - had been treated like this. Bah !

I had to mince down gingerly on the brakes rather than hooning along at 40mph.

 

[tyred]

It irritates me so much when the local council get sub-contractors to re-surface a road and they leave it like a billiard table and then a week later the council will come along and put this shite on top of it, supposedly to preserve the new road surface but in a few months time it will have worn away and leave the road as rough as fark and a few nights frost in winter will make it even worse again. Why oh why!

And the other habit they have on the minor roads that I like to cycle is to surface dress over the tops of potholes and other bumps without filling them first so that what looks like a nicely re-surfaced road still contains all the bumps it had in the first place

Perhaps someone could enlighten me as to why this isn't a waste of tax-payers money to achieve absolutely nothing apart from chipped windscreens and paintwork and potentially accidents for 2 wheelers.

 

[Globalti]

If you read up about tarmac (yes, yes, I know...) you will realise that local authority highways engineers are paranoiacally obsessed with friction. That's why they hate a slick surface and will go out and stick gravel all over it. It's quite a scence getting the tar emulsion mix right, apparently, and can only be done in the right weather.

 

[pawl]

If you read up about tarmac (yes, yes, I know...) you will realise that local authority highways engineers are paranoiacally obsessed with friction. That's why they hate a slick surface and will go out and stick gravel all over it. It's quite a scence getting the tar emulsion mix right, apparently, and can only be done in the right weather.

Fills pot holes so can't see them.

 

[ayceejay]

Belongs in the same category as scraping the top surface off and leaving it rough for a fortnight so that cars and trucks can break it up into small missile size lumps.

 

[John the Monkey]

Time to post this again?

http://www.highwaysmaintenance.com/SDtext.htm

It's not, de facto, a bad way to surface a road. Inappropriate application, and the lack of compliance by motorists with the speed limits on the new surface are the issues, not the process itself, the author argues.

 

[totallyfixed]

Like just about everyone else I have a pathological hatred of the stuff. The roads around here, especially the smaller roads get very little traffic on them, even so they have been out chipping and from what I can see they are doing it to perfectly good roads, not a crack or pothole in sight.
Two thoughts / questions, when they put the tar and chippings down then roll it, why are the loose stones not swept up immediately? The evening time trial has had to be cancelled and any chance of beating your pb has now gone. I digress, my second point is why do they not use smaller chippings, I have asked this before but not had a sensible reply yet. I remember a road was done this way when we used to live near Cambridge, much better to ride on, less aggressive surface and no gaps where the sun could melt the tar. In contrast a few roads near to Melton were chipped using very large granite like stones, it lasted just a few months, a complete waste of money.

 

[Drago]

And when the gravel wears off it exposes a sheet of bitumen, that's usually on corners or roundabouts, And is likes ice when it rains. Thanks council.