State of the nation's roads

[s5tuart]

That’s a bit “pot and kettle” from someone who used to drive a CLS Shooting-Brake

Got me! But compared to the Fiat 500 I saw on the way back the shooting brake was tiny

 

[A.J.]

A week or two ago in this thread, Blobcat mentioned German roads. I've driven a lot on German and Austrian roads over the years, and their roads are possibly the best in Europe. They are often like a patchwork quilt though, lots and lots of repairs, all in perfectly defined squares and rectangles, but you'd never know as you drive along them, you can see the repairs, they mostly show up by being a slightly different colour, but you can almost never feel them as you drive along, no bumps or dips, and perfectly level with the rest of the road surface, and they don't seem to deteriorate with age, maybe as Blobcat suggested, it's all down to the depth of substrate. They have more extreme weather than most of the UK, hotter in summer and ****** cold in winter for weeks at a time, but unlike slapdash UK repairs, they don't seem to deteriorate over time and start fraying around the edges, necessitating endless repeats. They don't complain endlessly about flooding or freezing, they probably wouldn't dare. It's not more repairs we need in this Country but better quality ones, maybe we should import some German road repairers.

One of the mysteries of this is Norway, they a lot harsher weather pattern than we do here and yet they don’t suffer from Potholes.

Local Authorities love a jolly so why don’t get their lazy arses into gear and go and find out they are doing which are not !!

 

[Timeandleisure]

Erm erm… coughing into cupped hand…Not being part of the EU…

 

[A.J.]

Erm erm… coughing into cupped hand…Not being part of the EU…

I wasn’t concerned whether it was in the EU or not, it was more that I felt something useful could be learned there

 

[Timeandleisure]

I agree with you,, but maybe my point needs elaborating upon...When young I seem to remember our roads were known for their superbness and I don't recall many issues with mending roads in our area. However my experience of sitting around a table with the 20+ entities, agreement to ensure an equal playing field is seldom a path well paved... excuse the pun.

 

[DSK]

One of the mysteries of this is Norway, they a lot harsher weather pattern than we do here and yet they don’t suffer from Potholes.

Local Authorities love a jolly so why don’t get their lazy arses into gear and go and find out they are doing which are not !!

Because that would go against the total lack of incompetence, corruption, unethical disease thats ingrained itself into every sector, in this day and age.


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[00slk]

I think our 'cart tracks' are far too gone to be a viable proposition for the councils/government's to worry about repairing. They will need all the tax payers money for illegals and Criminals!
So, we will just have to learn where every crater, pothole and rut is and concentrate on your zigzag driving skills. I tried this driving back from East Dereham last night.......It's going to take a lot of practice to miss the danger points

 

[DSK]

Another weekend jaunt to Warwickshire yesterday and despite the same route, I was wide eyed and swerving heavily for new craters on the motorway!

I can assure you it’s only a matter of time before vehicles end up hitting these dangerous craters and having/causing an accident when suspension/steering items just break upon impact.


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[rorywquin]

I think our 'cart tracks' are far too gone to be a viable proposition for the councils/government's to worry about repairing. They will need all the tax payers money for illegals and Criminals!
So, we will just have to learn where every crater, pothole and rut is and concentrate on your zigzag driving skills. I tried this driving back from East Dereham last night.......It's going to take a lot of practice to miss the danger points

Problem we’re having to worry about potholes which is distracting us from watching traffic, cyclists, pedestrians, idiots etc etc.

 

[00slk]

Problem we’re having to worry about potholes which is distracting us from watching traffic, cyclists, pedestrians, idiots etc etc.

Wholeheartly agree with you

 

[Blobcat]

Problem we’re having to worry about potholes which is distracting us from watching traffic, cyclists, pedestrians, idiots etc etc.

Maniac! Don’t you realise you should only be looking at your speedo!!!!

 

[00slk]

Maniac! Don’t you realise you should only be looking at your speedo!!!!

Or rev counter......Not me, I check out the short skirts

 

[Mark Q]

I’m tempted to replace my SL with a pick-up truck (bakkie / ute) with a crew cab. Useful and good on potholes.

I have both, the Ute does bounce a lot in the potholes, but at least it doesn't kill the alloys. Great for those back lanes with no tarmac.
The SL rides the road much better, so long as the holes are not too deep.
I appreciate the SL much more as its so different, in the past some of our cars have all been similar low coupe's/convertibles and drove fairly similar on usual trips.

 

[Chris9369]

I think our 'cart tracks' are far too gone to be a viable proposition for the councils/government's to worry about repairing. They will need all the tax payers money for illegals and Criminals!
So, we will just have to learn where every crater, pothole and rut is and concentrate on your zigzag driving skills. I tried this driving back from East Dereham last night.......It's going to take a lot of practice to miss the danger points

I was driving home from East Dereham (I live about 10 miles from there) on Monday afternoon in my Jaguar XJ and managed to hit a rather large pot hole. Within 100 yards, both tyres on the nearside had deflated. On the rear tyre I could actually get my finger through the hole in the side of the tyre, and it was a new tyre less than 4000 miles ago. We had to call recovery to get us home. In the hour and a half that we were waiting, two other people stopped to say that they had hit the same pothole in the last few days.
The cost so far, recovery £202. The wheels are being refurbed and checked for cracks and roundness + 2 new tyres £697 (providing they don't find further damage) and then there will be a 4 wheel alignment check to check for any damage to the suspension. So the total bill is likely to exceed £1000.
Fortunately, Norfolk County Council are aware of it as it is marked with white spray paint. So a claim will be going in as soon as the work is complete.

 

[DSK]

I was driving home from East Dereham (I live about 10 miles from there) on Monday afternoon in my Jaguar XJ and managed to hit a rather large pot hole. Within 100 yards, both tyres on the nearside had deflated. On the rear tyre I could actually get my finger through the hole in the side of the tyre, and it was a new tyre less than 4000 miles ago. We had to call recovery to get us home. In the hour and a half that we were waiting, two other people stopped to say that they had hit the same pothole in the last few days.
The cost so far, recovery £202. The wheels are being refurbed and checked for cracks and roundness + 2 new tyres £697 (providing they don't find further damage) and then there will be a 4 wheel alignment check to check for any damage to the suspension. So the total bill is likely to exceed £1000.
Fortunately, Norfolk County Council are aware of it as it is marked with white spray paint. So a claim will be going in as soon as the work is complete.

It’s just horrid luck and fair trade lay the councils should pay and such costs for repairs cannot be glossed over. I hope it’s all sorted swiftly for you.

I would have thought you’d need to prove you hit it (such as dash cam/photo/video at scene) and then have some report of some type to say the damage is a result of said pot hole impact by a reputable independent source such as recovery/garage/engineer.


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[littlebrooklyn]

Problem we’re having to worry about potholes which is distracting us from watching traffic, cyclists, pedestrians, idiots etc etc.

The road we live in has always been fine until recently. Now it's got so many potholes, mainly on one side of the road, that I literally have to line the car up at a certain point so that I can straddle about 6 pot holes all in a row. I'm so focused on the potholes I know that I'm distracted and I've even thought about using a different route to avoid them

 

[Mark Q]

I was driving home from East Dereham (I live about 10 miles from there) on Monday afternoon in my Jaguar XJ and managed to hit a rather large pot hole. Within 100 yards, both tyres on the nearside had deflated. On the rear tyre I could actually get my finger through the hole in the side of the tyre, and it was a new tyre less than 4000 miles ago. We had to call recovery to get us home. In the hour and a half that we were waiting, two other people stopped to say that they had hit the same pothole in the last few days.
The cost so far, recovery £202. The wheels are being refurbed and checked for cracks and roundness + 2 new tyres £697 (providing they don't find further damage) and then there will be a 4 wheel alignment check to check for any damage to the suspension. So the total bill is likely to exceed £1000.
Fortunately, Norfolk County Council are aware of it as it is marked with white spray paint. So a claim will be going in as soon as the work is complete.

Owwwcchhhh !

 

[Rockron]

Bring back the Romans say I, look what they did for us a couple of millennia ago.

Septimus Severus Cobble Layers Ltd., highly recommended back in the day might still be around.

 

[Chris9369]

It’s just horrid luck and fair trade lay the councils should pay and such costs for repairs cannot be glossed over. I hope it’s all sorted swiftly for you.

I would have thought you’d need to prove you hit it (such as dash cam/photo/video at scene) and then have some report of some type to say the damage is a result of said pot hole impact by a reputable independent source such as recovery/garage/engineer.


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Fortunately I have dash cam footage to show that I hit the pot hole. The recovery truck invoice states "reason for recovery - 2 blow outs" and the postcode of the place they collected me from - about 100 yards from the pot hole. I took a couple of photos of the pot hole showing the spray paint around it so they can't really deny that they were aware of it and photos of the damaged wheels and tyres. The young girl that hit it the previous day said that her bill was already at £1050. and that was just for one wheel but the whole wheel had "exploded" to put it in her words.

 

[DSK]

Another repeat trip two trips Warwickshire yesterday and same again…. ‘That wasn’t there last week.. swerve!’ On the second trip I used the w221 and despite the heavy rain on the motorway, my eyes were focused on the road just ahead to ensure I don’t end up with a cracked wheel. No fun and exhausting to have to drive like that.

With the news of how far behind the government is with road repair monies, it’s fair to say they won’t get better, it has gone beyond the point of no return.


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