Sent to Gloucestershire Highways today...

[3narf]

Hello
The recent resurfacing work around Long Newnton and Crudwell has been done without first repairing potholes. This is worse than if the roads had not been resurfaced at all!

I now find when cycling I am being forced by oncoming vehicles into potholes which are invisible to drivers (due to being full of road grit). As there is obviously no intention to paint white lines (the way the road boundaries used to be marked when the roads were better) the potholes should have been repaired first. Therefore the resurfacing amounts to nothing but window dressing.

This area is very close to the Cotswold Water Park; I probably don't need to point out the risk to holidaying cyclists or the implications of a rich family being forced into potholes. Failing to repair these roads properly may prove to be false economy.

 

[Globalti]

Dream on. Top dressing is window-dressing. County Highways engineers are obsessed with skid resistance and top-dressing is a cheap solution. The correct way would be to cold plane the surface, repair, then resurface properly with hot-rolled tarmac but that's the kind of expense that only French, Italian and Spanish local councils can mysteriously afford when the Tour de France, the Giro or the Vuelta is about to pass through their area.

Watch now and see what happens to that top-dressing when the emulsion fails and the road begins to shed the granite chips, which will pile up on junctions and corners.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I've often wondered why we don't seem to use that method of road surfacing here.

I probably don't need to point out the risk to holidaying cyclists or the implications of a rich family being forced into potholes. Failing to repair these roads properly may prove to be false economy.

A cynical comment but probably true.

 

[ukbabz]

Not just Gloucestershire, extends into Oxfordshire as well. There's quite a few sections where have the same bodge job, not sure if it was tied to the Ovo womens tour a few weeks back as the work was finished just beforehand.

 

[Globalti]

Oh so it's where they have sprayed hot bitumen on the road then sprinkled fine gravel on it? That's an even worse bodge.

 

[snorri]

Not just Gloucestershire, extends into Oxfordshire as well.

.... and much further, nationwide in every point of the compass.

 

[C R]

Same in Worcs. I nearly came off a few weeks ago in one of the gravel accumulations that were left after the dressing.

 

[ColinJ]

Dream on. Top dressing is window-dressing. County Highways engineers are obsessed with skid resistance and top-dressing is a cheap solution. The correct way would be to cold plane the surface, repair, then resurface properly with hot-rolled tarmac but that's the kind of expense that only French, Italian and Spanish local councils can mysteriously afford when the Tour de France, the Giro or the Vuelta is about to pass through their area.

The surface of the A6033 from Todmorden towards Littleborough has been appalling for years but for some reason they finally decided not only to fix it, but to fix it properly! A couple of kms is now pristine tarmac. It is wonderful to cycle on, but it makes such a contrast to the horrid surface either end of it and makes me yearn for more!

 

[Globalti]

Yes we had that done near Clitheroe cement works, hot-rolled tarmac is a dream for cycling but just spoils you for the rest of the ride.

 

[Jenkins]

There was a section of one road near me that was planed and tarmaced earlier this year. This week they're surface dressing the remaining sections either side of it...

 

[delb0y]

We've just had our road (Gloucestershire, again) resurfaced. Lovely it is... was. The gas board are now digging it up to relay gas pipes. The cycle lane is like an off-road track now.

 

[Andy in Germany]

We've just had our road (Gloucestershire, again) resurfaced. Lovely it is... was. The gas board are now digging it up to relay gas pipes. The cycle lane is like an off-road track now.

Yes, the formula in the minds of a lot of contractors seems to be "Bike lane = Convenient digger parking space"

 

[Jenkins]

We've just had our road (Gloucestershire, again) resurfaced. Lovely it is... was. The gas board are now digging it up to relay gas pipes. The cycle lane is like an off-road track now.

Cadent by any chance? I've seen smoother pump tracks than the roads around Felixstowe where they've replaced mains gas pipes.

 

[the_mikey]

Same in South Gloucestershire, the lanes around Doynton and Hinton are chipsealed, only they seem to be skimping on the amount of bitumen used, so it's mostly loose chippings, my work van lost traction a few times on this new surface...

 

[screenman]

When I venture out of Lincolnshire which I do often I am amazed at how good the roads are when compared with these parts.