Potholes - the road to the future.

[ringway]

Source BBC Radio 4.

Potholes are a national obsession. But there's much more to them than you might think.
Ruth Alexander digs deep into their costs for business and society - where fixing two holes in a motorway can cost half a million pounds.
But she also finds all kinds of entrepreneurial imagination going into solving the problem. Everything from new data analysis to 3D printing drones may be the answer.
Beneath it all lies a fundamental question. Can we learn to value roads, and maintain them as a vital national asset, smoothing the way to big business and social gains?

This is a good informative listen.

BBC Radio 4 - In Business, Potholes - the road to the future

 

[Flyinspanner]

Use all the plastic waste generated in the UK to resurface the roads as they are doing in India.

I saw this week that they are going to trial a road surface made from recycled car tyres here in the UK.

 

[GeeJayW]

Well we hit one on our way back from Skye last week and it put a bulge in the sidewall of our nearside front tyre. £235 to replace...
Bloody potholes are dangerous and expensive. But, money spent fixing them is rarely seen as high priority compared to other social spending.

 

[ricky s]

The pothole obsession is one of my life's bug bears, I simple cannot believe that all the monies that are levered out of motorist in one form or another are directed to road worthiness and repairs, the roads in the Wealden area of Sussex, are, and do not doubt this, in area's like third world conditions, I do not even take my transit van on those routes let alone me cars these days. it's a bloody disgrace. More recently we spent 2 weeks travelling down through France, experienced none of this road condition abuse...Ugh

 

[Gazwould]

 

[John]

Use all the plastic waste generated in the UK to resurface the roads as they are doing in India.

I saw this week that they are going to trial a road surface made from recycled car tyres here in the UK.

I remember about 25/30 years ago they were going to try adding bits of shredded car tyre into the surface of newly-surface roads to quieten down vehicles driving over them.

Not sure what the result was though as never found out.

 

[Deleted member 126251]

My wife manages to hit every single one .........

 

[Piff]

Ditto

 

[clk320x]

Went over a massive pothole and buckled my wheel

Not going to be cheap for a new one lol

 

[Scott_F]

Although it can sometimes seem like a modern obsession there is nothing new about the pothole problem.

As far back as 50 years ago, there were said to be 4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire.....

 

[190]

As far back as 50 years ago, there were said to be 4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire.....

True enough but even the Beatles didn't have stupidly low profile tyres back then.

 

[Scott_F]

True enough but even the Beatles didn't have stupidly low profile tyres back then.

And the holes were rather small.

 

[bpsorrel]

Unbelievably, our roads are now on par with th average Russian road! When I first drove there, I was appalled by the road conditions, the holes were everywhere and dips and cracks made driving very interesting! Now, I find the same thing here.... Can't sit on the high ground any more! LOL!

 

[l5foye]

The problems with our roads is the failure to use good quality materials in the first place. Finland with temperatures from minus 30 to plus 30 and the use of studded tyres in winter, has far, far less potholes. Why? Because they use good material to start with.

 

[Riva811]

The problems with our roads is the failure to use good quality materials in the first place. Finland with temperatures from minus 30 to plus 30 and the use of studded tyres in winter, has far, far less potholes. Why? Because they use good material to start with.

It's probably the volume of cars as well?

Sent from my J8110 using Tapatalk

 

[Deleted member 126251]

The problems with our roads is the failure to use good quality materials in the first place. Finland with temperatures from minus 30 to plus 30 and the use of studded tyres in winter, has far, far less potholes. Why? Because they use good material to start with.

They do not do proper repairs to the potholes just a band-aid. It is a lovely moneymaker for the contractors (Mayor's / councillor's brother?) doing the work. By the time they repair the last one, the first one that they did needs redoing.............

 

[uumode]

They can't even level the new repair properly. Goes from pothole to a bump!

 

[GeeJayW]

Both front rims needed to be straightened by a specialist last year. Health check done as part of our MoT this week, showed again that both front rims have some buckling. So will be talking to the alloy specialist again soon.

To replace them with two new rims, dealer quoted just over £1500. Even though I like the way they look, the 19" rims are going to have to go in favour of the standard 18" five-spoke.

The condition of our roads is a disgrace.

The Department of Transport are spending many billions on so-called Smart mototorway that benefits no one, more billions on CrossRail that benefits London, more billions on HS2 which is again Londoncentric. Meanwhile the rest of the national transport system is woefully under-funded, especially road maintenance projects.

As mentioned already, the revenue screwed out of the motorist and other road users is huge. Would be interesting to see how this compares with the monies actually spent on road projects and maintainance.

 

[ringway]

I was out with my son and his mate one night and we hit a pothole in Didsbury village. It was so severe, we automatically got out of the car to see what had happened.

Another downside is that someone may have borrowed a car and return with a damaged wheel/tyre. "I'll be careful, dad..."

Each time I encounter a bad pothole I have an urge to hunt down the head of local authority and visit the bad potholes in their privately owned car - hopefully something vintage or special. I WILL DRIVE.

 

[leef44]

I do wonder whether the heavier cars get and bigger the wheels, this is getting a bigger problem with more wheel damage.
I have a little MY05 Suzuki Ignis which weighs under a ton and has 15" alloys. I've been through some hidden deep pot holes before and it felt like it smashed through the wheels. When I get out and check, I find no damage to the wheels to my surprise.