Repairing potholes - how?

[GB]

One of the local roads was full of holes. The council sent along some guys with a truck full of tarry stones and a fairly lightweight compactor - the sort of thing I've seen used on driveways before block paving is laid. They filled the holes, but the tarry stuff has not stuck in place. So, the result is the holes are all back again and the road is full of loose tarry stones, especially in the gutters.

Is this a problem with the temperature? Or the compactor? Or is the material completely wrong?

If it were me doing it, I'd be looking around for some sort of fast-setting epoxy resin, but then I'd probably go bankrupt paying for it as there's probably not a lot of money in pothole-filling.

[A.Clews]

Thus spake GB ( [e-mail]) unto the assembled multitudes:

Probably a mixture of all three, plus the presence of water.

That would be a complete waste of time and money. Potholes are mostly caused by water seeping into cracks in the road surface, then freezing and bursting the surface of the road, and the debris gets scattered by vehicles, leaving the potholes behind. Using any kind of adhesive to stick material down will be no match for further freezing and bursting, which if it doesn't happen in the same place will happen next to it or nearby instead. It may even be dangerous, as the stuck-down material will form bigger lumps of debris on the surface when it comes loose. The only real solution is to rebuild the road surface from scratch, which is highly unlikely in most cases because of the prohibitive cost.

[Man at B&Q]

Horse drawn?

Round here they've been cutting out a larger area with a dangle grinder type thing to get a nice clean square edge and then fill that. One section of road was so bad, however, it had to be stripped right back to the concrete, which looked sound, and re-laid. Nice shiny smooth new surface which looks like it will be fun when next we get ice on the roads!

It's good to see some council tax being spent on something useful but I can't hepl feeling it will be used as another excuse to increase it next year.

MBQ

[Bruce]

That would be the relatively new stone mastic asphalt (SMA) which has a very low coefficient of friction when newly laid.

In other countries a special, low speed limit is placed on new SMA until it has developed something approaching a safe skid resistance. Even after that, warning signs are still placed so that drivers take special care.

Here, we don't do anything. At some point, a good injury lawyer is going to exploit this and sue the arse off the relevant highway authority. Then perhaps we will also see speed limits and proper signage on British roads. I'm not holding my breath, though.

Where else would the money come from?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

A local road here was re-surfaced last year and is now full of holes. Of course the speed bumps survive without damage. ;-) Wonder how they cope in countries far colder than here?

[TheOldFellow]

It's 'cos they are all broke, having to buy all that extra salt at a time when the Chief Exec is expecting her bonus. Rather than doing it right, they are doing 'something' quick, in the hope that no one will notice the big bonus.

Local Government Execs are best treated as vermin.

R.

[GB]

I'm in N. London, and the roads round here are simply full of holes. We had a prolonged period of severe frosts followed by thaws. We had some rain as well as the snow. Also, all the salt put down thawed the snow enough to get it into the cracks. I'm not sure why it would freeze, though, if the salt was still doing its job?

Even if the long-term soluction is to resurface all the roads in the borough, I can't see this being done. Even if the money is found, there won't be enough machinery. I think that somebody who comes up with a viable method of patching the holes so they last a year or two will clean up.

[chris French]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

Surely it's the freeze/thaw cycle that does the damage - what we tend to ahve plenty of, rather than consitently colder temps per se.

[John]

The task has had no improvements since the invention of the car!

I saw a gang doing repairs on a factory internal road where they used a heater to melt the existing layer before adding and compacting new stuff. It seemed to work well.

I wonder how much of the cost of a repair goes onto the overheads - eg. Man with wheel on a stick. Man with yellow paint aerosol. Creation of spreadsheet to quantify requirements. Putting job out to tender, etc.

We should be "tooling up" and productionising the process.

[John]

[The Natural Philosopher]

No speed bumps.

Actually, unsurfaced dirt roads are best for freezing.

My gravel drive is fine..

[Tim Watts]

TheOldFellow wibbled on Wednesday 03 February 2010 15:06

I agree, except for the "Local"

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Problem seems to be if the road isn't made properly from scratch fill a hole and another soon appears elsewhere.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Doesn't seem to effect motorways. Or main roads - or at least nothing like the same.

[Dave]

We could go back to cobbled roads perhaps. It could also slow down the traffic speeds to the local limits, as a bonus.

Dave

[Dave]

I live very close to the A6, one of the most important trunk roads in the country and that is now full of pot holes.

As you say, I have not encountered a pot hole on any motorway I have travelled on this year and I have done a lot of miles on them, since the new year.

Dave

[Dave]

Bankers? That would be very satisfying :-)

Dave

[Dave]

Can you tell us when the open season on them is?

Dave

[Harry Bloomfield]

GB has brought this to us :

Apparently putting salt on the road draws heat out of the road, causing the underlying moisture to freeze. So you could say the salt helps to damage the road.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Dave formulated the question :

Not many, but I did see a few - all very quickly repaired over night.