Me and others complained about pot holed dangerous road,but it's worse now that they've repaired it

[Accy cyclist]

The road circling my local park has been rough for years. Me and others have complained to Lancs County Council,asking for it be be resurfaced. Our requests fell on deaf ears,but i went up there for the first time in a month or so,yesterday and saw brand new shiney tarmac had been laid. Great i thought. Not quite! tree sap and other tree dropping had fallen onto the tarmac. Cars had squashed all this stuff into the road leaving the surface like ice. I only walked on it but i slid a bit just by doing that. When i saw it my first thoughts were to do the 20-30 laps i used to do before it became unrideable. Now that it's nice and smooth i think it's actually more dangerous than before! I just know that even a slight turn of wheel on it could result in an off and another hip/leg break. How long would you say it'll be before it's safe to ride on?

 

[Globalti]

It's not tree sap, it's sugar excreted by aphids who are drinking tree sap so it won't wash away until it rains.

 

[Randomnerd]

View: https://youtu.be/QrlkBmHU-wk

 

[pawl]

We have had some potholes filled round us.Seem incapable of leaving a level surface most of them are more like mini road humps.

 

[Crankarm]

The road circling my local park has been rough for years. Me and others have complained to Lancs County Council,asking for it be be resurfaced. Our requests fell on deaf ears,but i went up there for the first time in a month or so,yesterday and saw brand new shiney tarmac had been laid. Great i thought. Not quite! tree sap and other tree dropping had fallen onto the tarmac. Cars had squashed all this stuff into the road leaving the surface like ice. I only walked on it but i slid a bit just by doing that. When i saw it my first thoughts were to do the 20-30 laps i used to do before it became unrideable. Now that it's nice and smooth i think it's actually more dangerous than before! I just know that even a slight turn of wheel on it could result in an off and another hip/leg break. How long would you say it'll be before it's safe to ride on?

Careful what you wish for?

 

[Accy cyclist]

It's definitely not safe! I walked across it yesterday. You can feel yourself slightly slipping as you move. I can't fault the council's road workers as the surface is smooth as a baby's bum,compared to the holes grooves,cracks and bumps we had before. Perhaps they could've put up warning signs like they do when they put those horrible road chippings down,but in this case warning about a slippery surface. I just know some boy racer is going to go flying along there at stupid speeds and lose control.

 

[Accy cyclist]

[QUOTE 5318223, member: 45"]Aside from the exaggeration, you should report it to the council. They'll be interested to know and if they deem it a risk they'll clean it.[/QUOTE]
What would be the point? The stuff's going to keep falling down from the trees till autumn comes,then it'll be the wet leaves that are hazardous.

 

[Globalti]

So the ropey weathered surface was actually more grippy than the slick and greasy smooth-rolled hot tarmac surface?

The irony!

 

[Accy cyclist]

So the ropey weathered surface was actually more grippy than the slick and greasy smooth-rolled hot tarmac surface?

The irony!

Well it was certainly more 'grippy',but the state of it meant that you had to sway from side to side to avoid all the rough bits. That meant that dimwit motorists sometimes thought you were taking the piss and doing it to stop them passing you. One of them told me this till i pointed out why and i presume others do it. "Oh look Doris,that non car tax paying,uninsured cyclist is trying to stop us doing 30mph in a 20mph zone. I'm going to get as close to him as possible to teach him a lesson"! The road has other dangers such as old biddies who just decide to do a 3 point (usually about 7 attempts) turn as you approach,or just pull out without indicating their intention to do so. Then of course let's not forget that on one side we have a park and on the other a football field,so some think it's ok to just let their dog or child run across your path as they move from one to the other!

 

[Accy cyclist]

[QUOTE 5318243, member: 45"]You either want something done or you want something to moan about.[/QUOTE]
A bit of both, in a way.

 

[Globalti]

My nephew came down with a bang when we left a gravel canal towpath and joined a tarmac track under trees; lack of experience meant he didn't recognise the greenish surface as slippery and he crashed painfully, poor lad.

 

[Accy cyclist]

My nephew came down with a bang when we left a gravel canal towpath and joined a tarmac track under trees; lack of experience meant he didn't recognise the greenish surface as slippery and he crashed painfully, poor lad.

A similar thing happened to me. There i was cycling along a path shaded by very high trees which gave off all sorts of droppings, when i slipped doing a slight turn at about 10 mph. I fell badly,bumping my helmet covered head on the slippery tarmac. About 2 weeks later i lost the sight in my right eye. The surgeon who tried to repair it said it could've been caused by a head trauma. He said that before i told him i'd fallen off my bike.

 

[vickster]

Have you reported it yet?

 

[Accy cyclist]

Have you reported it yet?

No. I'll just avoid it till it's safe. Let someone else get all hot under the collar as they get moved from one department to another.

 

[Globalti]

It would be interesting to hear from a highways engineer here. There was something about this on R4's PM programme a couple of days ago as they are talking about potholes every evening. They interviewed an engineer who wasn't very clear but thought that road builders and local authorities need clearer guidelines on tarmac quality because Britain is now struggling with the consequences of local authorities switching in recent years to a different grade of tarmac, which is porous, meaning passing car tyres force water down into the surface where it freezes and breaks up the road. Instead of this, the engineer said we should be doing as on the continent and laying hot-rolled tarmac, which is denser and hence waterproof and much less prone to freeze-thaw. Now it wasn't clear whether this has been done in the interests of cost or in the interests of skid-resistance because I know that highways engineers are obsessed with the subject and a fresh black hot-rolled surface, although nice and smooth for drivers and cyclists, is greasy for a while and probably less resistant to skidding. Continental roads are generally very smooth for this reason and because they don't have the volume of traffic and the freeze-thaw that British roads suffer.

Listening to the engineer I was skeptical because I can't believe that highways engineers don't have precise ways of specifying tarmac for contractors.

I do know that as part of their obsession engineers sometimes specify top-dressing to improve skid-resistance but that this has to be done carefully in the right conditions if it isn't going to fail later in hot or wet weather.