Side road resurfacing

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Originally concrete slab, later tarmaced. They are resurfacing and have scrapped up the tarmac down to concrete - how long do they normally leave it, before returning to retarmac?

It's been two weeks now.

[jon]

They could leave it, we have some concrete roads around here.

[Andrew]

Local station car park and the entrance has just been done for Southern Rail. Planed off the entrance road down to concrete on day 1 and the whole job was finished by day 3.

[NY]

I remember when major roads like the A34 between Oxford and the M40 were made up of concrete slabs, with tar expansion joints. Not a nice road surface to drive on - very hard (tarmac is hard, but there's a bit more give in it) and the thump-thump-thump of each joint gets very annoying after a few seconds ;-) About the only thing in their favour was that concrete roads were very hard-wearing and didn't need resurfacing every few years.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

NY expressed precisely :

..and noisy. The built a motorway a few years ago in concrete, one mile away. A petition soon had it resurfaced in tarmac.

[Tim Lamb]

In message <s32cbl$kbs$ [e-mail], NY [e-mail] writes

There is a section of the M25 a bit like that Ashstead/ Reigate area.

>

[HVS]

On 19 Mar 2021, Harry Bloomfield, Esq. wrote

There are some stretches of the M25 -- through Surrey and Kent (I think) -- that are still concrete slabs with expansion joints; I absolutely hate driving on them because of the noise.

I could be mis-remembering, but ISTR reading some years ago that the Highways Agency/MoT tender calls for resurfacing don't specify which material is to be used -- that is, it's left up to the companies bidding for the contract to choose whichever one they they can supply at best price.

[charles]

it carries on to Chertsey (11). I live close to J10

[Martin Brown]

There is still a chunk of concrete slab A19 like that round Billingham. There may be a bit less of it after the latest roadworks have finished.

Hard wearing but noisy would be my summary. Is there still some on the M6 old Preston bypass section?

[alan_m]

Possibly waiting for the weather forecast to tell them the temperature is going to be above xC or that the concrete surface will by dry for y hours.

[alan_m]

Unless built on clay with a tendency to "heave".

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

alan_m wrote on 19/03/2021 :

Which is the case here. My assumption is that the slabs rock slightly with passing traffic, which then breaks the tarmac up at the join. The joins in the slabs soon show up after resurfacing.

[newshound]

See if there is anything on the Highways web site? Ours seems to post lists of jobs and estimated timings. Or indeed local council.

[alan_m]

I've seen roads where the slabs have randomly cracked.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

alan_m pretended :

Some of the original slabs are quite broken up, others seem intact, all have been disturbed by later work on services.

From what I can gather, the intention is to eventually lay something called Microashphalt.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Well, I do know they next have to see what the various drains and other inspection covers supports are like and whether they need work or raising a bit more. That job no doubt is done by yet another contractor! Also if there are cracks or holes or sinkage anywhere they may decide to dig that part up and re concrete it. They did this near me a couple of years back since it had to carry double deck busses and they did not want cracks to form in the finished road due to the level differences or continued sinkage. Also idf they have done this part they always wait a month or so of settle time so they don't get sinkage there. This does annoy the wotsit out of the locals however due to all the slightly raised covers and drains, since they need to be avoided! I guess they could just shove it down and hope for the best, but in about two years then they have to come back and start patching it. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

That was maybe because the underlying concrete was level and not too many issues about inspection covers and drains or damage to the concrete from past excavations. Brian

[Andy Burns]

Or

I see that now shows vaccination centres, don't think I've ever noticed one of those creating a traffic jam?

On the other hand every McDonald's seems to cause a queue round the block twice a day since they re-opened.

[Andy Burns]

Sections of the A46 between nottingham and leicester used to be like that, kthunk-kthunk kthunk-kthunk, later they re-did the joints and "grooved" the concrete and it's perfectly fine

[Steve Walker]

Years ago ('80s or '90s IIRC) they demonstrated laying concrete as a continuous slab and, when it had set, but not hardened, microcracking it. It gave space for expansion, so no need for expansion joints (although simply angling those or making them V shaped will do away with the regular jolts and noise) and did away with the need for grooving the road surface for water dispersal (and the irregular surface meant no drone - just like tarmac). Unfortunately I never heard anything about it again.