I have not ventured south for a while. Are the roads in poor condition south of civilisation?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-12475589
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Glasgow's really really bad. Has been for a while now.
North Lanarkshire's mostly ok, but you can tell the towns and villages that are close to the council depots :-) Thankfully i'm only a couple of miles from council hq. Maybe this has no bearing at all but i like to think it does.
The difference is staggering crossing the boundary of Lanarkshire into Glasgow. Come out of Coatbridge (North Lanarkshire border) and hit Baillieston (Glasgow), it's night and day. Go down to Uddingston (South Lanarkshire border) and it all clears up again.
I don't know what the solution is, but many of the roads in Glasgow have gone past the bodge-able fix stage. Pretty much looking at resurfacing a city, certainly all its key routes anyway. How to fund that, i haven't a clue.
Buy a 4x4? :-)
Last edited by: Webmaster on Thu 17 Feb 11 at 02:40
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Skoda, totally agree!
The M8 isn't too bad but as soon as you hit London Road, thereonin it is hellish.
Some of the roads wound he Clydeside are hellish, and don't start me on the High St junction outside the Royal!
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Crossing the boundary from West Dunbartonshire into Glasgow is the same as crossing in from Lanarkshire it is night and day.
The bodged's that GCC are doing are no better than putting mud into the holes as they only last days if you are lucky a few weeks.
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Yes. I leave extra space in front of me on the M4 in Berkshire, not to avoid running into the car in front so much as to give me time to see the craters and steer around them.
Closer to home, the district council put up notices that a small roundabout near my house would be closed for three weeks (!) for resurfacing, which made me think they were going to give it the thorough job it and the surrounding residential roads needed. In the end, they gave it a slap of fresh Tarmac and re-opened it in four days.
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Trafford, just west of us, has some appalling roads...was on the bike yesterday and I thought some of the holes were enough to throw me off.
Commented to SWBO on some of the holes today in a road near us.....car was bucking like a horse yet they have the cash to stencil a bicycle by the kerb about every 10 feet !
Ted
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Many roads in Beds-Bucks-Herts are full of potholes.
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The roads are so bad near me I wish I had bought a Land Cruiser. I keep falling pot holes but they cannot be avoided in busy traffic situations.
My sisters boyfriend went into one in his brand new 4 day old 107 and burst a tyre.
They just have not bothered to repair the roads after the last snow fall.
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the daft contractors near me have filled in another lot of holes with the same loose tarmac they used last month. The surface has completely degraded and there's gravel and substrate everywhere - it looks like the bed of a river! Even after they 'filled' the holes they left piles of this loose gravel everywhere. I'd pity any motorcyclist who hits that and skids. God only knows why they don't just make a good job of it once and properly resurface, but no, that would take common sense, planning and oh yes, less money than sending two crews out at two or three different times. Silly me.
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>> Many roads in Beds-Bucks-Herts are full of potholes
From recent experience the roads are in much worse condition in Herts than they are in Beds. In some cases there's a noticeable change in quality as you cross the county border.
I've noticed this week that the road surface of the roundabout under junction 22 of the M1 is breaking up all over the place, even though it was extensively resurfaced last autumn. It's in worse condition now than the roads leading up to it.
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Just travelled to and from the Lake District - the roads there are in very poor state, disintegrating old repairs, some pot-holes deep enough to swallow a bus - the wearing surface is wearing away in lots of places and the white lines seem to be fading away in places. Spotted some pot-holes (mainly on old repair sites) on the M6. There were repair gangs out in Cumbria - but theu have their work cut out. - the M56 seemed to be tidy. North Wales major roads are nowhere near as bad as in Cumbria - guess we were lucky. Spotted some pot holes on the higher roads in Snowdonia but again nowhere as near as bad as the crumbling infrastructure in Cumbria.
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I've noticed some old 10-20 year old metal-chip roads are in a better state than those which are 5-10 years old. The new tarmac they use which is smooth with fine aggregate seems to be inherently weak.
Last edited by: sooty tailpipes on Wed 16 Feb 11 at 21:40
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The London Borough of Barnet are pretty good at repairing holes. This is the council that also kept an election promise to remove all the speed humps. Barnet is wealthier than most, which partially explains it.
Elsewhere in North London the roads are not so good. Enfield is skint. Harrow is about average for road quality. Brent is a dive. The Peoples Republic of Haringey are quite anti-car of course and don't seem to bother much about craters in the road at the best of times - SIL had a run in with them BEFORE the credit crisis over car damage from one of their huge potholes.
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there are stretches of the a46 near me ( loughboro/melton mowbray) that are surfaced in concrete with expansion joints every so often, the noise can be a bit tiresome but there are no pot holes, the concrete sections have been there for over 30 years or more....makes you wonder
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Durham, Newcastle and North/South Tyneside are appalling.
Some of the potholes are downright dangerous now. It seems the authorities have simply decided not to bother anymore. Must be concentrating their resources fighting claims from motorists for damaged suspension etc.
Last edited by: Snakey on Thu 17 Feb 11 at 13:01
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It was reported recently that Surrey has the worst roads. I certainly wouldn't argue that.
Repairs that have been carried out have mostly been very cheap, and thus short-lived, especially as even minor roads here carry a lot of heavy 4x4s on their school runs.
Question: If the road surfaces were better, would there stil be so many 4x4s on Surreys roads?
Answer: Probably!
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It's not just 4x4s, I'm convinced I've caused a ripple in the tarmac in the right hand lane off ramp at J6 on the M8 - the brakes were prone to glazing slightly, loosing their edge so every couple of days I'd stand it on it's nose there when no one else was about.
Stopped doing it when the ripples became really obvious and I put 2+2 together.
Last edited by: Skoda on Fri 18 Feb 11 at 11:28
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Gwynedd Council seem to be systemically repairing the pot holes - even on the minor lanes. Bizarrely on Saturday (yes - Saturday) a council cherry picker and a solitary council worker turned up and set about replacing street lights (around 10 in all) between us and the main road - the ones on the very narrow back lane were replaced last autumn. An added twist the new lights (low light pollution units) are white as opposed to the amber ones on the back lane......
I can imagine that these are being replaced now to use up 10/11 funding before the end of the financial year - but can't help feeling that the money would be better spent on er...pothole filling. Anyway the new lights shine quite brightly in a downlighting sort of way usefully picking out the remaining unfilled pot-holes. I have a fair idea of how local government funding works - if this is some funding quirk I'd prefer it if the budgets were totally devolved and monies allowed to be carried over from one year to the next say on a five year cycle...
Last edited by: Pugugly on Mon 21 Feb 11 at 22:41
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Skoda, I am going to tell Amey on you !!!! :)
Whenever I wanted to test brakes, I always used the back road into Newhouse Industrial Estate - not sure if it still there now that the Co-Op monster has arrived!
Has the new car arrived yet?
Last edited by: BobbyG on Tue 22 Feb 11 at 08:42
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>> now that the Co-Op monster has arrived!
That is pretty huge. Ideal location for that kind of thing though, hopefully adds a few jobs to the area too.
>> Has the new car arrived yet?
Well it's in the country, and i have my new reg number, SK 11 VRS... poetic licence / wishful thinking on the last 3 letters :-(
Should be at the dealers this afternoon, a few bits and bobs done on it then it should be ready for next Tuesday morning, fingers crossed.
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Nice plate. I always enjoyed The Skivers, especially the one with Spike Milligan that was the last show recorded in the BBC's old Paris Theatre.
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It would have been more apt than i first thought if i had managed to score that plate.
* posted on work time :-)
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Well if you get the SK, you can then get some chav bolts to the 11 to make it a 0, then you just need to get the DA?
Out of curiosity what dealer? I have had dealings with Henrys and the mob from Broxburn and I found them both excellent to deal with.
Or by selling your trade in, have you gone to a broker?
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>> you can then get some chav bolts
Haha! You can take the man out of Airdrie, but ye canny take Airdrie out of the man
>> the mob from Broxburn
Yup, the mob have been ace so far, every time something changes they let me know same day. Keen pricing too. Henry's have been really good the times i've spoken to them as well right enough.
>> have you gone to a broker?
Lined up a few different deals from different places, the mob were the last ones i queried but best deal so trade in + few pennies their way. Plus they're getting my wheels painted by the crowd i would have used for cheaper than i could negotiate and the windows tinted by a crowd who've a decent name, again cheaper than going rate.
I dare say he's added a few quid to the rate he's charged for these, but he's not gone overboard, makes sense for him, he shaves a few quid for arranging the work, rather than getting nothing if i went elsewhere.
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So is it white vrs you are getting? Saloon or estate?
Passed a white saloon coming down the main street the other day, must admit it didn't stand out as well as metallic blue ones!
Maybe something to do with the local taxis....
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Aye white vrs estate. The blue is nice in direct sunlight, but we live in Scotland :-p
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Road surface deterioration. - Skoda
