State of the roads
Discussion
Just been to Oban area for the weekend, driving from the Borders. The roads from Callender to Tyndrum to Connel and areas around there were atrocious - huge potholes and areas of destruction - a real hazard to vehicles and safety. The police apparently insisted that Connel was resurfaced within a week it was so bad (which has been done). Bikers i feel would be at serious risk, some of these holes are 9" deep, and scattered randomly across the road and round bends. I have never seen them so bad. Glad I was in a 4x4, not a treasured low car with stiff suspension.
Funnily enough, just been thinking the same over the past few days... granted, some of the back roads have always been a bit ropey but even the main roads are starting to get borderline dangerous. The M90 up towards Kinross has assorted sunken holes appearing and I hit a couple of really significant holes southbound too. Parts of the bypass and the A1 are going the same direction and there seems to be more and more roads where the top layer is simply crumbling away. I've hit a few lately that God only knows how damage wasn't caused.
It's always been something that I've thought about, for example of you were to hit a pothole at speed on the motorway which caused a loss of control be it just by the sheer shock or by some sort of mechanical / tyre failure and you were then involved in an accident, be it taking yourself out or somebody else in the process... where would you stand legally on such a matter? I ask this having hit a pothole a few weeks back on the M90 in the dark, in the rain and wrote off a pair of underpants as the car had a moment to itself.
It's beyond a joke now... all my cars are on 18" wheels (not by choice, but by design) and they are bad enough but for those running larger wheels / lower profiles and who could be facing bills in to four figures for a wheel / tyre replacement, it just makes driving anywhere these days an absolute chore and basically a complete leap of faith. I now drive, eyes on stalks looking for and swerving round holes. Only a matter of time...
It's always been something that I've thought about, for example of you were to hit a pothole at speed on the motorway which caused a loss of control be it just by the sheer shock or by some sort of mechanical / tyre failure and you were then involved in an accident, be it taking yourself out or somebody else in the process... where would you stand legally on such a matter? I ask this having hit a pothole a few weeks back on the M90 in the dark, in the rain and wrote off a pair of underpants as the car had a moment to itself.
It's beyond a joke now... all my cars are on 18" wheels (not by choice, but by design) and they are bad enough but for those running larger wheels / lower profiles and who could be facing bills in to four figures for a wheel / tyre replacement, it just makes driving anywhere these days an absolute chore and basically a complete leap of faith. I now drive, eyes on stalks looking for and swerving round holes. Only a matter of time...
I'm as critical of the roads authorities as the next person, but the recent daily freeze/thaw cycles have really opened up a lot of cracks/potholes in even fairly major roads - there's even fairly big potholes in the M8 surface in the city centre that haven't been fixed.
To be fair to the trunk road operators, there's been various items appearing on Traffic Scotland's website/twitter feed about short-term emergency daytime roadworks on the motorways - presumably this is severe potholes being fixed with traffic still running.
In saying all that, I reported a badly cracked surface on the M80 a couple of years ago, it got passed about between Traffic Scotland, Amey, Bear and Scotland Transerv, all saying it was someone else's area (I'd sent them a Google streetview picture/map of the exact spot!) until I finally got a response from one of them saying it was theirs and it was booked for resurfacing.
To be fair to the trunk road operators, there's been various items appearing on Traffic Scotland's website/twitter feed about short-term emergency daytime roadworks on the motorways - presumably this is severe potholes being fixed with traffic still running.
In saying all that, I reported a badly cracked surface on the M80 a couple of years ago, it got passed about between Traffic Scotland, Amey, Bear and Scotland Transerv, all saying it was someone else's area (I'd sent them a Google streetview picture/map of the exact spot!) until I finally got a response from one of them saying it was theirs and it was booked for resurfacing.
Patch1875 said:
Watched them today fill one in Edinburgh sure there was standing water in it couple of shovels of tar and a wack down with a machine now it’s raised a couple of inches higher than the road.
Imagine it will disintegrate again over the next couple of days.
Personally I'd give it until the first bus passes over it.Imagine it will disintegrate again over the next couple of days.
Total waste of time and money doing repairs like that. If a bus doesn't remove it, the freeze/thaw of any water in the hole will loosen it off.
Patch1875 said:
Watched them today fill one in Edinburgh sure there was standing water in it couple of shovels of tar and a wack down with a machine now it’s raised a couple of inches higher than the road.
Imagine it will disintegrate again over the next couple of days.
This imho is the main issue. Either lazy or incompetent contractors who, by their actions, stack up the problems for later by doing a st job!Imagine it will disintegrate again over the next couple of days.
jshell said:
This imho is the main issue. Either lazy or incompetent contractors who, by their actions, stack up the problems for later by doing a st job!
I have long been of the opinion that if a contractor cannot lay a piece of road which can withstand a single winter, then they ought not to be contracted for such business.They ought to be tendering for a length of road and its maintenance over, say 10 years. If it disintegrates, then they need to be fixing it pronto and free of charge, or face heavy penalties.
Too many cowboys making too much money from local authorities who don't really care.
Davie said:
Though all joking aside, I find myself looking at 4x4's and even the slightly less school run spec SUV's lately and thinking they're making more and more sense as time goes on and the roads get worse and worse.
I had a loan of a Tiguan with a 240bhp bi turbo which is starting to become more appealing!
Gassing Station | Scotland | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff