Discussion
On the plus side, today's flooding gave me good reason to tell the wife "told you so" having been told my Discovery was unnecessary.
However, I think it rather highlights the terrible state of the roads and, particularly, drainage in Wiltshire. The rain wasn't that heavy or prolonged, yet great swathes of roads, including major A roads, were rendered impassible. This conveniently coincides with cuts to the frequency of drainage clearance by Wiltshire Council. High time we stopped subsidising bus services that no one uses and spending the right amount of money on maintaining our basic infrastructure.
However, I think it rather highlights the terrible state of the roads and, particularly, drainage in Wiltshire. The rain wasn't that heavy or prolonged, yet great swathes of roads, including major A roads, were rendered impassible. This conveniently coincides with cuts to the frequency of drainage clearance by Wiltshire Council. High time we stopped subsidising bus services that no one uses and spending the right amount of money on maintaining our basic infrastructure.
It's a bit of a joke, given how much rain we get in this country, you'd expect the roads to be able to cope.
Heading up to the M5/M4 this morning was an absolute nightmare.
They spent a load of money putting in all that b
ks along whiteladies and up to the triangle, which seems to serve no other purpose than being pretty.
Then there's roads that are flooding that don't get any money spent on them!
Maybe it comes from different budgets, I don't know, annoying either way!
Heading up to the M5/M4 this morning was an absolute nightmare.
They spent a load of money putting in all that b
ks along whiteladies and up to the triangle, which seems to serve no other purpose than being pretty.Then there's roads that are flooding that don't get any money spent on them!
Maybe it comes from different budgets, I don't know, annoying either way!
We could see the same again later this afternoon/evening and unless we get a prolonged dry spell it could continue to happen, even after relatively small rainfall totals, right through the winter. The problem being that the ground is completely saturated, so any rainfall just runs straight off. Water likes to take the path of least resistance and in most cases this means flowing onto and down roads. This time of year there are plenty of fallen leaves lying around, which get swept along by the water and block gulleys and culverts.
The councils and Highways Agency know this, so need to be upping their game to at least allow what water gets onto the roads to drain as quickly and efficiently as possible. Obviously this won’t always help, but it would ease the situation.
My commute yesterday was abandoned after nearly 2 hours of driving around trying to find a route to work which was passable. Roads were running like rivers and there were broken down cars strewn all over the place. Many drivers were driving too fast and some were ploughing on into turbid floodwater of unknown depth, only to come unstuck.
The councils and Highways Agency know this, so need to be upping their game to at least allow what water gets onto the roads to drain as quickly and efficiently as possible. Obviously this won’t always help, but it would ease the situation.
My commute yesterday was abandoned after nearly 2 hours of driving around trying to find a route to work which was passable. Roads were running like rivers and there were broken down cars strewn all over the place. Many drivers were driving too fast and some were ploughing on into turbid floodwater of unknown depth, only to come unstuck.
I think the problem is that there's been so much rain over this year as a whole that the ground's completely saturated already, there's nowhere for it to go!
I personally had a slight "Moment" overtaking something slow near Portishead. Whilst mid said manouevre I managed to hit a rather large patch of water hidden by a dip. Slight loss of traction but overtake completed safely!
I personally had a slight "Moment" overtaking something slow near Portishead. Whilst mid said manouevre I managed to hit a rather large patch of water hidden by a dip. Slight loss of traction but overtake completed safely!
not a problem 
just kept powering through all the water around with not a hint of slip at regular speeds. had to test the anchors on the wet surface yesterday when a dithering old woman pulled out infront of me. the big ap's are worth their weight in gold in situations like that.
i have always found that with some good rubber most cars will perform extremely well in the damp.
just kept powering through all the water around with not a hint of slip at regular speeds. had to test the anchors on the wet surface yesterday when a dithering old woman pulled out infront of me. the big ap's are worth their weight in gold in situations like that.
i have always found that with some good rubber most cars will perform extremely well in the damp.
was going to pop to Bath today and seems most of keynsham is flooded, first was going to go to bath via bitton and the roads flooded. terhn tried Via keynsham and parks flooded, pub by the lock floooded. was going to get on the bypass but could see it was gridlocked so headed to Bristol.
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