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Roads replaced with gravel

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  • October 27, 2012 at 4:50 pm #17142
    Leviathan

    This is a bit of a gripe against Manchester and/or East Cheshire county council. This summer some signs went up around various spots where I have a mix of my usual routes. They said there would be road dressing. Sure enough the top layers were scrapped off and gravel chippings covered the road. The signs said “skid risk max speed 20”.

    Well I though this would be great to finally get some of the worst roads relaid with nice smooth tarmac all the way to the curb instead of just digging up the inside and causing more pot holes. So I waited weeks expecting one day to come across one of these patches laid smooth but it didn’t happen.

    I realised they were just letting the traffic bed down the gravelly surface and not finish it off at all. The chippings did clear but just ended up in a drift at the curbside. The potholes were barely covered and just turned into ruts in a permanently rough surface.

    I can understand if the councils have little money to spend of road resurfacing but this is not the answer, they are already degrading worse than the original surface in just three months. If this is an ongoing policy it will quickly make ‘road’ bikes pointless. I already have to avoid these spots: Park Road, Gatley; Marthall Lane, Ollerton; Common Lane, Lach Dennis. And I have seen more signs up.

    Anyone else seen these ‘repairs’ in action?

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  • November 5, 2012 at 11:29 am #705127
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    Bobbys boys

    …and just about the whole
    …and just about the whole of Worcestershire. There used to be some great roads to cycle: Salt Way out of Droitwich, A38 north of Bromsgrove, A422 and just about every road in between but now instead of the smooth slick surface I get yucky gravel. Rubbish!

    Do the people who make the decisions have any idea how bad it is for cycling? You literally cannot use the road for a month or two when they first do it.

    November 5, 2012 at 9:44 am #705125
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    Cycleoptic

    The royal parks are at it
    The royal parks are at it too,

    The cycle path between Kensington gardens and Hyde park has had loose gravel put over the surface.

    Must look up the research that this newly added road surface is better for breaking and steering on this shared surface.

    November 5, 2012 at 9:01 am #705123
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    dave atkinson

    maybe one with a speech
    maybe one with a speech bubble that says “I’M BEING SARCASTIC”? 😀

    November 5, 2012 at 8:16 am #705121
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    Bob's Bikes

    Could ROAD.CC please give us
    Could ROAD.CC please give us some better smileys/emoticons as it seems that even if I post a comment on here which is so obviously outrageous followed by an emoticon to reinforce that people still think I’m being serious! 🙁

    November 3, 2012 at 10:30 am #705119
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    drheaton

    FATBEGGARONABIKE

    FATBEGGARONABIKE wrote:
    drheaton wrote:
    It’s not really the council’s fault, would you rather they cut school budgets to fix the roads?

    YES OH GOD YES! if you have kids why should I pay for their education? :evil:

    Because at some point that child will be fixing your car or bike, working in your LBS (or Evans), driving your train/bus, being your doctor or running the country.

    Education affects everyone, its not just for the benefit of those with children.

    Also, the “I don’t use that service argument” could apply to everything, hospitals, doctors, police and roads. I don’t use the roads as much as others, why should I pay as much as them? I don’t go to hospital as much as some people, why should I pay as much etc etc…

    Would you prefer tolls on all roads so what you pay reflects usage? Or an American style health system where you pay for each treatment rather than getting it free?

    October 30, 2012 at 3:57 pm #705117
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    Bob's Bikes

    drheaton wrote:It’s not

    drheaton wrote:
    It’s not really the council’s fault, would you rather they cut school budgets to fix the roads?

    YES OH GOD YES! if you have kids why should I pay for their education? 👿

    October 29, 2012 at 1:12 pm #705115
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    drheaton

    All I can say is, be glad you
    All I can say is, be glad you don’t live in Iceland. Over there they have a designation of road I’d never seen before, ‘Main Road – Unpaved’.

    It’s basically a gravel main road (and I mean actual gravel, not just a loose layer on top of tarmac) and they’re lethal. They get even more fun too in the winter when you get a layer of snow on top of a layer of ice on top of a layer of gravel 😀

    October 29, 2012 at 1:04 pm #705113
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    Gkam84

    As bikeboy said, its not just
    As bikeboy said, its not just covering potholes. Its the full road surface thats being replaced here.

    I would have no problem if it was just a temporary fix for potholes until such times as the full surface got replaced, but its now the case.

    The only road that we have which is tar, is a tiny section where the council tarred because the Queen was visiting to open a plaque.

    October 29, 2012 at 1:00 pm #705111
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    John_the_Monkey

    Just to add to the chorus of
    Just to add to the chorus of disapproval, there’s a part of (I think) NCN 45 after Wrenbury with this crap on that’s now bloody lethal. The drifted stones “grab” your wheel and will have you off if you’re not on your toes.

    October 29, 2012 at 12:18 pm #705109
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    Leviathan

    You’ve missed the point here;
    You’ve missed the point here; these ‘chipseal’ roads don’t repair the potholes they replace the whole road. Money is being wasted covering whole roads with a poor surface instead of repairing specific damage. One of the other contributors pointed out a recent repave that was sprayed with the chippings.

    This isn’t an either/or argument. Councils should still be funding any other public services but the roads budget is being spent in the wrong way.

    October 29, 2012 at 12:16 pm #705107
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    ilovemytinbred

    Some Fella wrote:
    Here is an

    Some Fella wrote:

    Here is an idea – instead of building new roads just get the same contractors to resurface every bit of road in the country.

    That is exactly what I think. If they cant look after the roads we have then only a fool would build more. It costs more in the long run to keep bodging than to do a proper fix. 10 or 20 billion spent now would go a long way to sorting it out.

    However you get a lot more political points by building new shiny roads/railways than looking after what we already have. The roads have been allowed to degrade for a long time now it does not aseem to matter who is in power.

    October 29, 2012 at 11:24 am #705105
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    Some Fella

    Last month the government
    Last month the government announced that they want spend £40bn on capital spending for infrastructure. A big chunk of this was for road building.
    This was designed to ‘stimulate growth’.
    Here is an idea – instead of building new roads just get the same contractors to resurface every bit of road in the country. The same people will be given work and our roads will be of a high standard (or until the utility companies come and dig them up).
    There was a similar programme in the 1920s and 30s when the entire road network was tarmacadamed.

    October 29, 2012 at 8:23 am #705103
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    drheaton

    The fact is though that
    The fact is though that councils road repair budgets are being cut and after the awful winter we had the year before last they’re already up to their necks in pot hole repairs.

    To ensure you can’t sue them they have to do something but they can’t afford a ten year fix so they do a cheap fix just in order to keep their heads above water.

    It’s not really the council’s fault, would you rather they cut school budgets to fix the roads? They don’t have the money to do a proper job so they’re just delaying the inevitable. Sooner or later it’ll get so bad they’ll have to do a proper fix but until then they’ll just keep going with cheap patch jobs.

    October 28, 2012 at 4:42 pm #705101
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    Leviathan

    It seems that this is going
    It seems that this is going on all over the country then. Councils are using this tactic to look like they are doing a lot of work on the cheap instead of fixing the potholes properly. They cover the whole road with chippings ruining the majority of the road that was fine.

    Looks like it is Stockport Borough Council near me that is to blame. I will be watching Manchester streets like a hawk.

    October 28, 2012 at 8:32 am #705099
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    Bob's Bikes

    What’s probably worse is the
    What’s probably worse is the fact that before this “covering” goes down the road faults (sunken trenches potholes & bumps) were easier to see!

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