Sodding Road Repairs

[nogoodnamesleft]

Re: Surface Dressing
A few years ago on a single track rural road I was cycling and met a ongoing surface dressing team and stopped and chatted. I commented how I bet I'd be reporting new potholes in a month. Gist of their reply was "You won't have to wait a month. It's a complete waste of time but hey, we get jobs, get paid, company makes profits. Waste of time 'cos it isn't a road, just a dirt farm track people laid some tarmac on top of. None of the proper road structure that will make it last".

And they were right, potholes reappearing, Highways making repairs two weeks later.

 

[esoxlucius]

Road closed ahead signs mean nothing to me. Unless the work involves butchering the road straight across from pavement to adjacent pavement, there is always a way through for a chap and his steed. You may have to dismount for a short while but so what. Beats turning around and charting a new longer route home.

The only time I have ever had to do this was when I came across a crash not long after it had happened and police were present. There was a way through and I tried to persuade the officer to let me through but they wouldn't let anyone or anything pass so I turned around and did about 8 miles more than what my original route would have been.

A roadwork app would have been useless to be on that occasion. About as useless as weather apps (I find). And what's this about pothole apps!! Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

 

[Binky]

Most roadworks I will ride through with care and always if possible ask a worker if OK to do so. I've never been refused.
Unless entire road surface being tarmac'd and it's unsafe to pass then I can't see an issue.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

And what's this about pothole apps!!

Pothole apps (or the ones I mention) are for reporting potholes to Highways. Particularly useful if you live close to county boundaries as the app works out which authority to report the pothole to.

They are much easier and quicker to use than each Highways web sites. Automatically takes your location, photo, select pothole and pretty well reported. Done.

I like to report them as much as in case somebody else "comes a cropper" later and that way Highways have been notified and failed to repair so the damaged/injured person has a case.

 

[Alex321]

https://one.network/public is your new best friend. All the roadworks listed in map format, many announced well in advance.

You need to register, and it seems to expect a business email for registration

 

[Alex321]

Pothole apps (or the ones I mention) are for reporting potholes to Highways. Particularly useful if you live close to county boundaries as the app works out which authority to report the pothole to.

They are much easier and quicker to use than each Highways web sites. Automatically takes your location, photo, select pothole and pretty well reported. Done.

I like to report them as much as in case somebody else "comes a cropper" later and that way Highways have been notified and failed to repair so the damaged/injured person has a case.

I use fixmystreet for that.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

I use fixmystreet for that.

Likewise. And discovered, when at pothole just take a photo of pothole using phone camera then once home use FixMyStreet app to "Report from photo" and it extracts everything from the photo (location, etc.). Far faster as you hardly have to slow down to just take a photo.

One issue I have is that being rural some parts of a ride (too much of a ride) have no mobile signal and FixMyStreet handles that very badly - locks-up and just won't work. But just using the phone camera is independent of any mobile/data signal so works everywhere.

Note: Apps not working without mobile signal happens as the developers are sitting at home, good WiFi, 5 bars of mobile signal in a town/city and never appreciate how much of the country (land area) doesn't have mobile signal and that potholes occur in rural areas without mobile coverage as well as in towns and cities.

 

[MadMalx]

You need to register, and it seems to expect a business email for registration

It doesn't care if you aren't a business. However, you do need to respond to a confirming email - I usually use a nonsense address for this sort of stuff. You get an option as member of public (or something like that).

 

[steverob]

You need to register, and it seems to expect a business email for registration

I use my home e-mail address, same one as I use on this forum.

And all that registration really does is gives you the opportunity to save your preferences - that way I can turn off the icons that I'm not interested in and only keep those about roadworks and road closures.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

https://one.network/public is your new best friend. All the roadworks listed in map format, many announced well in advance.

You need to register, and it seems to expect a business email for registration

That page will require an e-mail address.

Use https://one.network/uk which only has a right side panel suggesting you enter one but main left side shows zoomable to full detail map.

 

[mjr]

While one could complain both about pot-holes -and- the road works to fix them affecting pedalling, it would seem churlish to do so.

Why? Futile maybe, but how is it churlish to complain when repairs are being done badly? There's a set of legal requirements, a code of practice for safety at street works, which would avoid stupid hazards and diversions that are unsuitable for cycling, but they're almost never obeyed.

And, as far as I can tell, the bodies responsible for enforcing the law are the same county councils that are breaking it or allowing their subcontractors to break it.

 

[Shearwater Missile]

Well today's planned 30 mile and 4000ft ended up 35 miles and 5000ft due to the bloody council closing the road for repairs.
If I'd known I'd have gone a different route 😠

I think it's important to have something to complain about 😆

What annoys me is, I`ll look on Waze to see if there are any roads closed where we might be heading. So you see that all is good, only to find there is some kind of closure. The other thing of course is when there are road closed signs up but they are open. Moan, moan, moan !

 

[mjr]

What annoys me is, I`ll look on Waze to see if there are any roads closed where we might be heading. So you see that all is good, only to find there is some kind of closure. The other thing of course is when there are road closed signs up but they are open. Moan, moan, moan !

Waze is just an Israeli Google brand now, as prone to hallucinations as the main Google Ads Maps. Why do that to yourself?

 

[freiston]

I saw this thread and my immediate thought was that it was about roadside repairs.

I have to admit that I rarely check for closed roads/scheduled works unless I happen across them on local news websites or forewarning signs on the roads. If I do come to a closure, I proceed and try my luck and always asking workmen politely if they are about.

Once, when cycle-camping, I had cycled to the local town at night to get a takeaway. I had used a pre-planned route along little country lanes to navigate there using my Garmin GPS computer (couldn't remember the route, especially as it was dark - late October) but couldn't get the computer to reverse the route, so decided to use Garmin navigation to navigate back to a pre-saved "favourite" location (the campsite). As far as I can recall and work out, the Garmin took me about twice as far on busier bigger roads, mostly to avoid a road closure that I had passed on the way from the campsite that was only a real problem for motor vehicles.

 

[Mike_P]

Local example of stupidity. Roadworks on a side road to the A61 mean a single lane only open on that road causing emmense delays. The affected section of the side road could have been made one way leaving anyone wanting to go in the opposite direction to use an alternative route.