Pot Holes

[mayevora]

I was sure there would have already been a thread somewhere on this subject. 
Are the roads in the worst condition you’ve ever seen? Are they getting worse each year? Are the Councils/Local Authorities taking longer to repair them? I’m sure the answer to all the above is Yes Yes and Yes.

We’ve all probably at some stage seen the results of tyre damage and cracked or broken alloys. Anyone who has tried making a claim may have got successful if they can be bothered with the long drawn out arduous form filling in, photos and emails.

The attached picture was sent to me today from a mate of mine who attended an RTA near Bovey Tracey last night. This was a result of an older Fiesta hitting 2 very large pot holes on an unlit road after dark - axle ripped right off! Glad occupants were ok but I hope they can make a large claim against the local authority.

 

[jep]

In 1967 there were 4000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire .....I read the news today, oh boy 🎶     🙂

Justin 

[exeterjeep]

8 hours ago, mayevora said:

Are the roads in the worst condition you’ve ever seen?

Yes I think the same, potholes being poorly patch up and then fail shortly after again. There s a junction at the Exeter end of Tedburn Road, was very bad a few months ago, they spent  some time repairing it and already needs doing again.

( Ian you must know where I mean)  Even when they have been repaired they often seem to omit painting the suitable white/yellow lines. Was watching the film 4th protocol (again) the other day, was a scene in a side road and I thought how good the roads looked - with no potholes to be seen. 

[Chillidoggy]

The increased number of potholes could well be proportional to the increased level of traffic over the years. I say this having sat in God knows how many traffic jams yesterday. And it’s going to get worse around my area, thousands of new builds going up.

[exeterjeep]

58 minutes ago, Chillidoggy said:

The increased number of potholes could well be proportional to the increased level of traffic over the years

I suppose we can start to blame heavy EV's.

58 minutes ago, Chillidoggy said:

thousands of new builds going up

happening down our way as well, so the councils should get more council tax, but then there is not enough spare capacity in the council services/GP's, hospitals, schools and other public services, electricity, drains, water..... - got a bit off topic here.

[Bibs]

Increased traffic, heavier cars and a penchant from councils to repair them as cheaply as possible. 

I hit one in the outside lane of the M25 a couple of months ago, thankfully on a runflat tyre that didn't lose a PSI. I've not done it before but have claimed from the Highways however I'm sure it'll be rejected for some reason. They did ask me to go and take a picture of the pothole which I politely declined to do!! 

[pete]

1 hour ago, Chillidoggy said:

The increased number of potholes could well be proportional to the increased level of traffic over the years. I say this having sat in God knows how many traffic jams yesterday. And it’s going to get worse around my area, thousands of new builds going up.

yes was in northumberland last year no traffic and no potholes

[NG5]

Cars rarely cause potholes, most are caused by bad drainage or bad repairs, particularly after services work. But cars do rapidly make potholes get bigger and bigger. Once started damage increases by the square of the load. So faster cars cause more damage than slower cars and a modern 2 ton car does 4 times the damage of a 1 ton car. So yes the increase in traffic levels and increase in vehicle weights are making the problem a lot worse. Having said that most councils now just patch repair the pot hole without fixing the cause, so very rapidly the pot holes come back. Lorries of course do by far the most damage, in fact when designing roads, car traffic is ignored, the number of lorries (standard axles) is the measure of how strong the road needs to be. (I've been involved in building quite a few new roads and repairing old ones over the years 😎)

[mdw]

On 22/03/2024 at 08:51, Bibs said:

Increased traffic, heavier cars and a penchant from councils to repair them as cheaply as possible. 

I hit one in the outside lane of the M25 a couple of months ago, thankfully on a runflat tyre that didn't lose a PSI. I've not done it before but have claimed from the Highways however I'm sure it'll be rejected for some reason. They did ask me to go and take a picture of the pothole which I politely declined to do!! 

Do a foi request. Cambridge CC told me to go away 4 years ago not their problem. Put in a foi request.  Came back showing they were told 3 times by their own engineer it was dangerous and needed fixing. Cheque for 2 new tyres turned up 3 days later.  It's imoral they even tried it on.

[C8RKH]

I report all the potholes I come across on the Perth and Dundee council websites. it takes only a couple of minutes to do, and once reported, i think they have 30 days to check and repair. It works, as they are being fixed.

However, the quality of the repair is woeful in most cases. Uneven tarmac, no tar used to fill the gap between the repair and the new road so water just gets in again straight away, then the process of freezing, thawing and the water being squirted under pressure as tyres go over them means that the repair fails quicker than ever.

The councils need to ensure that they repair properly in the first place, and where contractors have done the repair (including utilities) then it needs to be inspected and if not redone.

I know the councils are strapped for cash, but paying for a cheap poor job 4, 5, even 6 times is definitely not cheaper than just doing it right first time.

I hit a large pothole yesterday, the side of my run flat on the Merc has a huge bulge in it where the sidewall has failed, so that';; be £200 for a new tyre on Monday. Kwik Fit think they'll put two new ones on the front but they can fook right off. I'm not ditching a good front tyre with 10,000 miles plus of life left in it just to have two brand new tyres on the front. Bloody cheek.

[ChrisJ]

They need one of these:

 

[exeterjeep]

[exeterjeep]

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Just been for a countryside drive out in my Evora. I have a favourite A to A rural route, that I have used to stretch the legs of my special cars over 18 years. By God it has deteriorated beyond all recognition in the past couple of years. I spend more time scanning the road surface for major defects than I do concentrating on the traffic ahead. Apart from the multitude of wheel smashing pot holes, there are also shocking camber changes from one side of the road to the other, as if entire sections of road have been subject to subsidence. Never an issue before, so why now? It’s not even a flood prone area. I laughed out loud when I saw that the council had tried to “solve” the problem by applying a new thin strip of tarmac to try and glue back together a section of road that had literally split longitudinally into two completely different elevations, maybe 8 inches apart. Any low slung sports car driver would be flung into the ditch if his car straddled that section of road and bottomed out.

 Oh and one other new annoyance. They have now introduced 40mph zones about 1/3 mile from the start of each village’s existing 30mph zone. So you’ve now got loads of new 40mph zones in the middle of the countryside where no-one lives or walks. Why is that necessary? Everyone knows you need to drop your speed down to max. 30mph when you reach the old signs. Why not go the whole hog and add an extra 50mph zone even further out?

[Kevin Wheeler]

1 hour ago, LotusLeftLotusRight said:

add an extra 50mph zone even further out?

Please don't give them ideas!

[NAC63]

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/27717966/porsche-driver-dies-family-home-car-swerve-pothole/

[jep]

Very sad....but pure speculation as to the cause. Terrible journalism.  

[C8RKH]

it's The Scum. Par for the course with them.

[JimmytheTurbo]

In Norwich on a section where they had been doing road works they have steel plates in the road. My wife drove over one last night and the children said what was that? She drove over another then had a flat which I had to come to the rescue of.

The roads are in an appalling condition but if its not pot holes its road closures. They seem to close the roads most people would take to get through. Seems like they are doing it on purpose t make the roads seem busier?