OT:Road laying (worth a try :( )

[Jethro_uk]

Ah well ....

Let's *hope* they have done the job properly. There are 2 reasons why our road started resembling no mans land ...

1) At the top of our cul-de-sac, is the back of the local convenience store. Which has deliveries with 20+ tonne lorries which insist on driving down the cul de sac, to the large bend. Turn around, and then drive back so they can reverse into the car park. And it's quite incredible the force a lorries power st?eering exerts on the tarmac when he's doing a 3 point turn.

2) We live in the shadow of a University. (We're "at the back" so to speak). Unfortunately using the postcode for the university can bring you to the bottom of the cul de sac. So we have (again) massive 20+ tonners, driving all the way to the bottom, (missing the "cul de sac" sign) and acting surprised when they have to turn around and go back.

Of course, being a quiet cul de sac, the road was never made to take such punishment :(

[whisky-dave]

Then don't tarmac over everything, plant a rain forest instead.

[Jabba]

Jethro_uk scribbled...

If you're that worried, sell the car.

[whisky-dave]

How ? as if yuo're laying tarmac on a road you can;t be laying it on a driv e at the same time. Even council workman can't be in two places at the same time neither can their machines.

So whose paying the workman to do the drive ?.

To tarmac a road.

Apparently

Did they allow for your 4X5 drive when ordering the tarmac, and how about y our Neighbours.

Would you be prepared to work an extra 10% ? Which is about 1/2 day per week.

[Mike Barnes]

"I keep telling people, there's no demand."

[Jethro_uk]

You seem to be labouring under the impression I wanted the job done gratis. I suggested I pay - maybe £1,000 ? The point being that having already borne the cost of getting the considerable (I had no idea there were that many machines available) cost of getting the machinery and materials to site, a few extra square metres, raising (say) £10,000 for £2,000 worth of time & materials would be a win-win situation. As I said, they could easily have done 10 drives - maybe more.

[Jethro_uk]

Why should I ? *I'm* not worried. But it's strange the people who are, are quite willing to act in ignorance of their worries, when it comes down to convenience. Like the director I had a while back, who insisted all PCs were turned off at night "to save the planet", but who go uppity when the aircon was also turned off "to save the planet".

[Tim Watts]

There's a big difference between relaying a clear stretch of road and 10 drives where each owner will have different requirements, and people will be in and out fussing about their plants getting squashed.

[Nightjar]

They were called motor rollers in the 1960s. I think, as a child, I once saw a real steam roller being used on the roads.

Most of the proper road laying equipment I've seen wouldn't even fit in the average driveway.

[whisky-dave]

Well that's not what I thought, I can't tell if you were replying to me but I assume so.

which they'd need to order before the lorries arrived and they'd have to al ocated time.

but only if they;'d brought the extra tarmac (and anything else needed) and allocated the time to do 10 drive ways. Now even if you're paying for them to do the job while they are doing that, they can't be doing the road whic h is why they are there in the first place.

The overall idea is sound but might be done as a groupon effort or maybe a local kickstarter project get all your niegbours together see if you can ge t enough interest and money to hire the vehicals and men and everything els e.

This would be great for pot holes, you see someone repairing a potjole and just go up to them and ask if they can do the rest of the road.

Was thinking the other night about them wanting to bring the Grand Prix to London, be fun with all those pot holes adn diversions ;-) Be more like an obstical course than a race.

[Ian Jackson]

It's like M&S ladies clothes. If my wife ever manages to find something she likes (which is rare), the rail has several of it in every possible size except hers. I can only assume that her size is the most popular and has rapidly sold out (and they don't bother to re-order), or they simply failed to buy enough/any in the first place.

[Harry Bloomfield]

"insert my surname here laid this down on his screen :

I had a radio in my car made by them :-)

[Davey]

Simple devices. Two large knobs, a few pushbuttons, easy! Nowadays, there are buttons that are too small for a gloved finger, and you have to go through some weird sequence to get from A to B.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Davey brought next idea :

Worse still, my latest radio has touch screen buttons :o)

[F]

There you go, you got it in the end...

[Davey]

Ouch, you have my sympathy.

[damduck-egg]

Wouldn't some drives depending on what material they are already constructed of need to have drainage channels and soakaways installed if existing surface is porous, another pain in the ass for an operation geared up to do the Job they are equipped for which is repairing the Public Highway. With umpteen poor roads to be mended before Winter wrecks them again the last thing we want are the repair teams being delayed while the foreman goes off to Travis Perkins to get a Soakaway crate or has to argue the toss with some berk who reckons the two mud ruts worn in his weed infested front "Lawn" accessed by bumping up two bits of wood in the gutter are an existing driveway and how dare the Council refuse him this service becuse the neighbour who by some miracle had a suitable location and was only charged xxxx.

G.Harman

[spuorgelgoog]

I believe council Home Helps here charge over £20 an hour. This includes if they go shopping for you.

Owain

[Nightjar]

I don't actually listen to the radio in the car, but, if I did, it can be voice controlled, assuming you can remember all the command words.

[damduck-egg]

Devon County Council still own a handful which might surprise their tax payers. They don't work on the roads there any more though. When the County finally stopped using them about 1970 there was some sentimentality amongst those in charge so rather than scrap them which at that time wouldn't have fetched much so they retained them in the hope they could be part of a museum. That never came about so they have been leased out to various groups who run and pay the costs of maintaining them. One of them was responsible for me being late for primary school about

1967, The driver ( who we knew) left it in our farmyard one evening when moving between jobsites and then rode home on the bike he carried, returning very early next morning to raise steam and continue the journey. As this was to the village my school was at I couldn't turn down the offer of a lift and a chance to steer. I was late because it was slower than my bike but it was also an experience that will never come again, the school master when given the reason for my lateness ran up the road and arranged an impromptu out of school visit* to the side of the road where the roller was used as a practical prop on steam power,simple physics, agricultural history and associated stuff. I doubt a driver or the teacher would be able to either now without risking their job or much form filling.

• It was a two room country school and he only took the older ones,about ten of us .

G.Harman