OT:Road laying (worth a try :( )

[Jethro_uk]

Having put up with a steady deterioration of our road - a 60-house cul de sac, we had a letter a couple of weeks ago informing us the council (contractors) would be doing some repairs this week, so keep cars off the road between 8 and 6.

Yesterday I was on a site visit. According to SWMBO some *big* f*ck-off machines trundled down the road and spent the rest of the day ripping up the old tarmac, and rolling in hardcore with a proper big steam roller (is that what they're called these days ?)

Anyway, with her typical cheek, she collared the gaffer, and suggested a few quid might drop in his lap if he "accidentally" relaid our drive (it's about 4m x 5m of shitty tarmac). Predictably (but sadly) it wasn't something they could do.

Can't help but feel they're missing a trick here ... there's a few houses here which could do with a new drive ... I'm sure a reasonable flat rate (say £1,000 a pop) and the crew could have made £10,000 for a little extra work - which could have gone back to the council.

Seems a shame to miss out on the chance - these guys have got the real proper equipment, and (to my eyes) are doing the proper job. Absolutely no comparison to the Irish gentlemen who (according to our neighbour) resurfaced the drive a few months before we viewed the property.

[Andy Burns]

A year ago the council were digging up and re-laying the paths round here, and offering to widen dropped-kerbs for a lower then usual price if done at the same time.

They wanted payment by cheque and I haven't seen my chequebook for years, so I arranged to visit the works dept. to pay by card as they couldn't do that over phone.

when I spoke to someone there, she said "so you want to pay for having your drive tarmaced?" as though that was something they actually offered, and I would have been interested, when I said "oh, I didn't know you did that" she said "we don't, but everyone asks if we can".

Duh, no sense of enterprise!

[Jethro_uk]

They've just gone round twice with a roadsweeper ...

[sm_jamieson]

The irish chaps turned up offering drive tarmacking just after the council relayed our road - buying left over tarmac I wonder ?

The roads around here have been recycled which means digging and munching u p the old tarmac, compacting with a vibrating road roller (thought my windo ws were going to fall out !), running a grader over a few times, a few laye rs of bitumen and some smaller stones. The the new proper tarmac final surface laid in two passes, one for each si de of the road. However, the road new has a quite severe camber to it, more than the surrou nding roads, so I think their methods are a bit hit and miss. The seam down the middle looks a bit silly in places. They also changed the manholes tops and drain gratings at the same time.

Simon.

[whisky-dave]

And while there are doing those drives who's tarmacing the roads ?

Why should it all go back to the council ? I'm not sure how long it'd take to do a 4X5 drive, but someone has to pay f or the workers time, and then there's the equipment hire and then last of a ll probbaly the materails are the lowest cost.

I know here that if we need to generate a cheque for payment(rather than a cc or purchase order) it cost £30 for finance to do it and up to TWO wee ks to write the cheque as they only write cheques every two weeks !!!!.

[Jethro_uk]

They do it *at the same time* as tarmacing the road ....

Reduce council tax ?

The point being they *already* have the machines and men here. Apparently (just got in from chatting to a driver) they're bringing 9 waggons of 20 tonnes of tarmac to do our road. Plus a sodding big machine to lay it. Plus an assortment of rollers. Plus a van which "iced" the road in tar.

I have no idea what all of this costs (they reckon they'll be done by tonight, so overall 2 days to do the whole road), but a few extra drives would be maybe an extra 10% effort ?

[Jabba]

Jethro_uk scribbled...

Great, turn the UK in an Asian corrupt state overnight.

[Tim Streater]

Using council staff, council equipment, council tarmac.

See above.

[spuorgelgoog]

It seems easier to get hard drugs delivered within an hour (*) that to get a local council to do anything within a week.

Owain

(*) I have no personal experience of this I hasten to add.

[DerbyBorn]

Suppose they damage your incoming water pipe - who would you expect to pay up?

[Davey]

That sounds like our local hardware shop. When I asked if they stocked wooden dowel, the reply was: "No, but lots of people ask the same question". Amazing.

[Davey]

Road-roller, maybe? Few steam-driven ones left now, I reckon! Although they have one at The Long Shop Museum, Leiston, Suffolk, which was rescued from the island of Ibiza.

Where we lived in Michigan, they did exactly that. Some time before the road was to be re-concreted, everyone received a letter explaining how much they could have re-laid of their driveway or footpath, and how much it would cost per square foot. Fill in the form, and it was done. Worked perfectly.

[Jabba]

[e-mail] scribbled...

Councils provide services - they ain't there to take work away from businesses.

Sure. Add that to "the cheques in is the post".

[Brian Gaff]

Our council will do this sort of thing, but its tied up in paperwork, ie crossover over the footway needs to be applied for and then you wait for ages blah blah. I'm sure that puts the costs up . That is the issue, contractors then come back and do the job.

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Or the RNIB, do you do replacement remotes for your smart talk. We used to but nobody wanted them, they are now all gone and people seem to want them but we now can't get them. Erm, is it me or is it not natural that they only want new ones when the old ones wear out? Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Are you suggesting they should clean your house? Brian

[F]

We got that offer here a few years ago. Came at just the right time as we were having the drive widened, and at a good price.

[Jethro_uk]

No, just commenting on the speed these guys are working at. They're already within 30m of finishing !

[Jethro_uk]

True. But given the GLOBAL CATASTROPHE awaiting use, ANY and EVERY opportunity to reduce CO2 emissions should be welcomed.

What's that ? We don't mind extra CO2 ? Maybe there's no crisis ....

[Dave Liquorice]

Those drives would need preping, not easy to maneauvour a road planer into someones drive or the tarmac laying machine. Not to mention that the road will be constructed to take the weight of that machinery. I very much doubt a drive would be quite so substantial. So It would mostly have to be done by hand and much smaller machines.