Poor Quality Temporary (?) Road Repairs

[Dr_Paul]

In various local boroughs, such as Richmond and Kingston-upon-Thames, the council attempts to repair pot-holes and other damage to road surfaces by employing a couple of men in a small lorry with some hot tar-macadam in the back. The hot tar is thrown down on the road by shovel and crudely tamped down with a hand-operated flat vibrating plate. No attempt is made to smooth down the tar to the road surface, and the tar is standing proud of the road surface by half an inch or so. I have watched them at work on a number of occasions when walking around the town. The result in every instance is that a pot-hole is replaced by a bump, making driving no less uncomfortable. Eventually, the main roads are properly resurfaced, but this crude patching can last several months; on back roads, it can last for longer than that. Is this the case in other parts of the country?

 

[D6130]

Is this the case in other parts of the country?

It certainly seems to be the case in Calderdale....only here the council use the cheapest cowboy tarmac contractor that they can find (allegedly!)

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Surrey County Council use poor quality temporary repairs that are then left for far longer than they should be!

Worse, SCC no longer seal the edges of even the permanent repairs with tar which means they soon start deteriorating again.

 

[DelW]

(Pedant alert!)

Tar / tarmacadam hasn't been used for decades - it was a by-product of town gas manufacturing, which ended with the arrival of North Sea natural gas. The gooey black stuff is bitumen (made from crude oil).

The reason for leaving the repair standing slightly proud of the surrounding surface is that it tends to compact further under traffic. The timescale and extent of this is somewhat unpredictable, so it doesn't always work as expected.

 

[SuspectUsual]

The reason for leaving the repair standing slightly proud of the surrounding surface is that it tends to compact further under traffic

Raised edges also tend to break up more easily

 

[Bald Rick]

In various local boroughs, such as Richmond and Kingston-upon-Thames, the council attempts to repair pot-holes and other damage to road surfaces by employing a couple of men in a small lorry with some hot tar-macadam in the back. The hot tar is thrown down on the road by shovel and crudely tamped down with a hand-operated flat vibrating plate. No attempt is made to smooth down the tar to the road surface, and the tar is standing proud of the road surface by half an inch or so. I have watched them at work on a number of occasions when walking around the town. The result in every instance is that a pot-hole is replaced by a bump, making driving no less uncomfortable. Eventually, the main roads are properly resurfaced, but this crude patching can last several months; on back roads, it can last for longer than that. Is this the case in other parts of the country?

No it’s not the same - here in Hertfordshire the county council rarely bother filling in potholes. On a road near me some wag (not me I hasten to add) planted a small tree in one of them…

 

[SuspectUsual]

Round here the people doing the repairs appear to be brain dead or ultimate jobsworths

The water people dug up the road to deal with a leak, including half of the marked area for a bus stop. When they patched the road they remarked the bus stop markings on the area they’d dug up, and must have noticed that the other half were faded almost to the point of being useless. They didn’t repaint those

 

[Bald Rick]

They didn’t repaint those

That is as per their contract. Repaint what has been dug up, nothing more unless instructed.

 

[Snow1964]

Wiltshire have been borrowing town wardens to patch holes, but similar approach except they seem to use a van and use bags of cold tar which often only lasts a few weeks.

But few B roads have been done properly with the crumbling surface planed off, then hot rolled tar laid with a paving machine. But they often ruin the job by not checking all the manholes and drain covers are cemented in correct position first, so come back and patch around the ironworks later and fail to get them as smooth.

 

[stuu]

I saw some pot holes being filled recently by the "crudely shovelled off the back of a lorry" method here (Somerset) recently. The tamping down consisted of hitting it with the back of the shovel. Lasted about a week

 

[Dr_Paul]

(Pedant alert!)

Tar / tarmacadam hasn't been used for decades - it was a by-product of town gas manufacturing, which ended with the arrival of North Sea natural gas. The gooey black stuff is bitumen (made from crude oil).

The reason for leaving the repair standing slightly proud of the surrounding surface is that it tends to compact further under traffic. The timescale and extent of this is somewhat unpredictable, so it doesn't always work as expected.

I didn't know that tar wasn't used any longer. I guess the popular use of the name has long outlived its actual use, rather like the way that the term steam-roller is still heard even though they're diesel-powered these days.

I've not seen any evidence that these patches compact down to the level of the road; they're still standing proud months afterwards. Sometimes, when the surrounding original road surface disintegrates further, the workmen just throw down some more tar, including over parts of any adjoining original patch, raising the bump even further. Before it was recently resurfaced properly, the Petersham Road in Richmond had some extensive examples of this.

Surrey County Council use poor quality temporary repairs that are then left for far longer than they should be! Worse, SCC no longer seal the edges of even the permanent repairs with tar which means they soon start deteriorating again.

Around here too, the patch edges aren't sealed, and they start disintegrating around the edges fairly soon. On the other hand, the contractors used by the water, gas and electricity boards usually do a neat job after the pipe or cable repairs are done.

Judging from the replies here, it seems that many town and county councils employ for road repairs those dodgy blokes who 'have some spare tar' and for some ready cash will surface your front garden.

 

[The exile]

No doubt another symptom of the brainless “target-driven” society we have become. We used to ridicule the Eastern bloc for it; fulfilling the target rather than thinking about what actually needs to be done. But hey, I suppose we get the politicians / managers we deserve….

 

[341o2]

Hampshire's roads are likewise a crumbling mess. In the Other News thread I mentioned the activities of another Wanksy (drawing a phallic symbol next to a pothole) He's been very busy