I just heard on the news that cars have been towed of a Scottish motorway due to suspension damage caused by a pothole. I didn't catch the whole story, but heard Bathgate mentioned which would be the M8.
Edit, Found it.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-12156324
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 11 Jan 11 at 14:05
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Heard both of those getting mentioned on the road reports today - in fact Radio Clyde instead of their Jambuster line were taking calls on potholes instead!
Am I right in saying these potholes only appear where there is already damage to the surface? So if our roads were perfect we wouldn't get weather induced potholes?
Problem in Glasgow is they have just not recovered from last winter and where they have done temporary repairs, these have not warded off this year's winter!
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It's down to the quality of the road surface, I have skied in many countries and their alpine roads are usually of superb quality in weather conditions far worse than ours.
We have a third world infrastructure, and I can't see it improving any time soon.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 11 Jan 11 at 14:28
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no worries
the road agencies are looking into the holes as we speak
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"We have a third world infrastructure, and I can't see it improving any time soon."
Do you think so? UK roads are generally good by world standards and certainly not third world.
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I crashed into one the other day, had to move to the left to let a car pass and then fell into a pot hole. Must have been about 3 inches. I had a quick look at the tyres and there dosn't seem to be any damage to the suspension.
Oh well its what happens when road tax pays for housing benefits.
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Did you report it to the relevant authority Rattle?
If they don't know about them they can't fix them.
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Noticed a lot of shallow potholes on the A1(M) in County Durham today.
It's the first time I've seen any significant damage to that road go untreated.
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There are so many of them I just can't remember where they are it has happened a few times.
There is also a bad one near a traffic light junction which I could report.
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I have driven on third world roads.
Now lets see:
No road markings.
No traffic lights.
No roundabouts
No speed limits.
No speed cameras.
Often men with guns - (scary).
Nope: we do not qualify.
As for potholes, New York 20 years ago made our current ones look amateur...
Last edited by: madf on Tue 11 Jan 11 at 18:13
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>> "We have a third world infrastructure, and I can't see it improving any time soon."
>>
>> Do you think so? UK roads are generally good by world standards and certainly not
>> third world.
>>
Shoe menders to you. We ain't a bit concerned about other ruddy Countries. We are concerned about here where we pay our taxes to incompetent idiots. Our roads in Devon are CRAP.
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Wonder how many people on the end of the phone who receive pot hole reports resist the urge to say "we're looking into it"
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This country has a lot of faults MD but the only way you can judge it is by comparison with other parts of the world. I'm not sure whether you have travelled far outside Devon but believe me most of the world has far worse infrastructure and government than the UK.
However if it helps you somehow to believe that you live in a third world country governed by idiots just because the roads have taken a beating after two of the worst winters on records then carry on.
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Did I mention third world in my post?
No I've never left the farm actually.
We ARE governed by Idiot's.
Stuff other countries.
Charity SHOULD begin at home.
Any more points you wish to raise old chap?
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Went over another one, over the rail bridge but you can't see it as its just over the sumit. I will report that one.
I felt it jolt quiet badly and I heared quite a big bash. Luckily the suspension travel is setup very high as the Panda is designed for city pot holes. i do suspect Kwikfit will be busy at the moment.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Tue 11 Jan 11 at 19:35
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try some defensive driving or wear glasses if you fail to see chasms :-)
oh and to third world country doomongers i pay nearly £1000 a year road tax and at one time road tax was spent on roads so there there
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Potholes are propagated by freeze/thaw - unfortunately our winters consist of being either a few degrees above, or a few degrees below zero repeatedly - in Alpine areas the temperature remains freezing for weeks on end and this causes less strain on the tarmac.
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>> in Alpine areas the temperature
>> remains freezing for weeks on end and this causes less strain on the tarmac.
>>
>>
True, but I have yet to see an alpine road, even an urban one, that has been dug up repeatedly every few yards and poorly reinstated. Unlike many of our roads.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 11 Jan 11 at 22:36
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yup,
most of the damage is round the poorly sealed seams where the surface has been broken.
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Many of the best ones are actually formed a few feet from the edge of the inside lane, where camber and a stream of HGVs break up the surface - joints can be weak points but are by no means the main cause of road surface breakdown.
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Where I come from, authorities don't call them poholes. Instead they use a "temporary roadsurface diminutions" term. Or something similar...
Last edited by: Vincent on Tue 11 Jan 11 at 22:58
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>>most of the damage is round the poorly sealed seams
I read they stopped sealing the seams as it caused a low friction surface that could be a hazard to motorbikes.
Tell that to my knees that bear the scars of finding wet manhole covers, on bends, at night, with 6V lighting!
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>> >>most of the damage is round the poorly sealed seams
>>
>> I read they stopped sealing the seams as it caused a low friction surface that
>> could be a hazard to motorbikes.
>>
>> Tell that to my knees that bear the scars of finding wet manhole covers, on
>> bends, at night, with 6V lighting!
>>
So potholes are safer than sealed seams? Hmmmm.
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>We have a third world infrastructure, and I can't see it improving any time soon.>>
Not saying that South Africa is a third world country, but when I was there I was quite taken aback by just how good the main roads were over a vast stretch of the southern coast area, even on trips to out of the way areas.
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Last winter (09/10) I burst a tyre on the edge of a pothole filled with water. I called the council to find out if there was any procedure in place for compensation but was told that until it's been reported to their repairs team they take no responsibility for any damage caused to vehicles by it.
This winter my route to work takes in several very badly holed roads and, as my car has again started to make an ominous creaking sound which last time was the forerunner of a coil spring snapping, I'm being diligent in avoiding the holes as much as possible.
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Last winter (09/10) I burst a tyre on the edge of a pothole filled with water. I called the council to find out if there was any procedure in place for compensation but was told that until it's been reported to their repairs team they take no responsibility for any damage caused to vehicles by it.
This winter my route to work takes in several very badly holed roads and, as my car has again started to make an ominous creaking sound which last time was the forerunner of a coil spring snapping, I'm being diligent in avoiding the holes as much as possible.
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I was reflecting this morning that it's easy enough to spot potholes and avoid driving into them if the road is dry, but when the holes are filled with water they look just like all the other puddles. You can't slow to 5mph for every puddle, therefore you just have to hammer on and hope for the best.
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Near where I work they have only just repaired some of the potholes from last year. Some of the ones they didn't repair opened right up. These too were repaired a couple of days ago and the repair is the biggest botch up I've seen for some time - the tarmac must have just been thrown in the hole and left!
Why do European countries seem to have the correct equipment to deal with this? All we seem to get is two blokes, one with a spade and another with a tamper!
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>> Why do European countries seem to have the correct equipment to deal with this? All
>> we seem to get is two blokes, one with a spade and another with a
>> tamper!
>>
Because they deal with them properly, yet what we have is councils that probably contract out the work to companies that don’t give a monkeys as long as they get paid a huge some of money to do so. And most of the time the council don’t bother to check the quality of the work that is done so they get away with it.
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Last year I sent loads of reports to Darlington council, I even included sections from Google maps highlighting exactly where the problem was with various outcomes
• The Potholes still haven’t been fixed
• The ones that have fixed where just badly filled in, and have since all been lifted out by the freezing weather. There is the grit from the rubble all over the road.
The only one that was properly done was on the approach to a roundabout, in the town centre where I watched a car sink down into a huge gaping crater, I pointed this out the council stating that the whole car virtually disappeared (which it did) and they have resurfaced it properly.
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This is the worst year that I can remember for potholes. In previous years I've not had a problem of trying to dodge potholes but this year I seem to spend more time looking at the road surface than looking at where I'm going.
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Best way to limit damage to your vehicle is to buy a big 4x4 with huge all-terrain tyres.
Or avoid driving in rain or at night.
Round our way the council have used all the tarmac up building speed bumps.
They're widening the dog latrines too.
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Pothole serious damage. - BobbyG
