Potholemageddon - will it ever get better?
Discussion
I am not sure what roads are like around where you live but those near me are in a dreadful state. Years of underfunding repairs has taken its toll.
The question is…have we reached a state where it is no longer practically possible to catch up with repairs and return our roads to a decent, first world state?
I don’t know how anyone rides a motorbike in the dark near where I live. They must have extrasensory perception and balls of steel, as some of the potholes are massive and not always that visible, especially in the rain.
The question is…have we reached a state where it is no longer practically possible to catch up with repairs and return our roads to a decent, first world state?
I don’t know how anyone rides a motorbike in the dark near where I live. They must have extrasensory perception and balls of steel, as some of the potholes are massive and not always that visible, especially in the rain.
Skeptisk said:
I am not sure what roads are like around where you live but those near me are in a dreadful state. Years of underfunding repairs has taken its toll.
The question is…have we reached a state where it is no longer practically possible to catch up with repairs and return our roads to a decent, first world state?
I don’t know how anyone rides a motorbike in the dark near where I live. They must have extrasensory perception and balls of steel, as some of the potholes are massive and not always that visible, especially in the rain.
I really don't think it is possible to catch up. The rate of decay is far faster that the speed of repair. Some stretches of motorway are also pothole ridden, it's so dangerous.The question is…have we reached a state where it is no longer practically possible to catch up with repairs and return our roads to a decent, first world state?
I don’t know how anyone rides a motorbike in the dark near where I live. They must have extrasensory perception and balls of steel, as some of the potholes are massive and not always that visible, especially in the rain.
Exactly this and when they come off, it's their fault ot the Highway Authorities.
Coming from a lifetime in Civil Engineering, a lot of it dealing with Highways, the problem is age. Roads are designed to have a lifespan, 25 or maybe 40 years in the case of motorways etc. After which, the need to be rebuilt as the actual structure, not the surfacing is starting to fail. Vehicle numbers, trucks etc have become more numerous than expected and much heavier. (Cars don't really count). However the Highways Authorities are strapped for cash, can't afford to fully reconstruct roads so either take the "sticking plaster" approach, slapping a bit of repair material in the hole which lasts maybe a year but the first frost and water in the material freezes, expands and the material gets left lying across the road as a gravel trap, or, they plane off the surface course and provide a nice running surface for a while but as the actual structure is failing it only lasts so long before it's back to square one.
Add to this, utility companies digging up the road and not carrying out reinstatements correctly (they usually do a temp reinstatement and are supposed to notify the HA who do the full reinstatement) and drainage collapses, etc .
TL:DR it ain't gonna get any better.
Coming from a lifetime in Civil Engineering, a lot of it dealing with Highways, the problem is age. Roads are designed to have a lifespan, 25 or maybe 40 years in the case of motorways etc. After which, the need to be rebuilt as the actual structure, not the surfacing is starting to fail. Vehicle numbers, trucks etc have become more numerous than expected and much heavier. (Cars don't really count). However the Highways Authorities are strapped for cash, can't afford to fully reconstruct roads so either take the "sticking plaster" approach, slapping a bit of repair material in the hole which lasts maybe a year but the first frost and water in the material freezes, expands and the material gets left lying across the road as a gravel trap, or, they plane off the surface course and provide a nice running surface for a while but as the actual structure is failing it only lasts so long before it's back to square one.
Add to this, utility companies digging up the road and not carrying out reinstatements correctly (they usually do a temp reinstatement and are supposed to notify the HA who do the full reinstatement) and drainage collapses, etc .
TL:DR it ain't gonna get any better.
A year later anyone noticed much change lol?
With the drive home for Christmas about to begin, millions of people will benefit from safer roads thanks to a record £1.6 billion investment to fill potholes and repair roads, announced by the government today (20 December 2024).
In a Christmas boost for drivers, the landmark investment – an increase of nearly 50% on local road maintenance funding from last year – goes well beyond the government’s manifesto pledge and is enough to fix the equivalent of over 7 million extra potholes in 2025 to 2026.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/seven-million-m...
With the drive home for Christmas about to begin, millions of people will benefit from safer roads thanks to a record £1.6 billion investment to fill potholes and repair roads, announced by the government today (20 December 2024).
In a Christmas boost for drivers, the landmark investment – an increase of nearly 50% on local road maintenance funding from last year – goes well beyond the government’s manifesto pledge and is enough to fix the equivalent of over 7 million extra potholes in 2025 to 2026.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/seven-million-m...
Shooter McGavin said:
I've long thought this is why adventure bikes and SUVs are so popular in the urban environment, people are just fed up of potholes.
This, my car has reasonably firm suspension and I wince at the state of some of our roads. The NC500 was particularly unpleasant and sphincter clenching for a large part of it and I managed to bend a wheel on Skye.I suspect my next car will be a comfy SUV, much as I hate them and the way they are mostly driven I can see why people buy them.
No point owning anything sporty with firm suspension anymore.
I ride bikes and have been riding for 27 years, it's something I've had to deal with all of this time, you train your eyes/brain around obstacle avoidance, but it's getting harder and harder given the state of the roads now, I certainly would want to ride on unfamiliar roads at night.
I live in a very rural area and there are two main roads to take me to the nearest town and motorway junction, one used to be heaven to ride or drive upon, open fast flowing roads for around 8 miles, the other not so much. However, the preferred road has degraded so much that there were (filled) and re-appeared huge potholes on some sections, I've seen cars, vans ambulances even stranded there at night after hitting the gaping void. It's gotten to the point where unless it's daytime I'll used the lesser road to avoid these obstacles whether that be car or bike.
To make matters worse, we live down a single track country lane, dead end. There are 4 houses and surrounded by farm land, so there isn't much usage and no street lights. the road is around a mile long and we live around 1/2 way up. When we moved in back in 2019 the local council had plans to resurface the road which they promptly did, now this wasn't tarmac, they had a machine that effectively ripped up the existing road surface and re-used it mixed with whatever else and it was relaid. It took 2 days in all to complete this and looked amazing.
A few months later, the surface started to degrade in patches, probably due to farm vehicles using it rather than cars, numerous potholes began to appear and I duly spent a long time taking photos and going through the laborious process of raising these with the council via their terrible web site. To their credit they did repair these pretty quickly, but it wasn't long before they either failed or more started to appear.
Rinse and repeat several times before the council decided again to resurface the entire road again, probably 2022 by now. Again exactly the same process and looked amazing.... You guessing it, a bit a dejavu and I'm logging issues again.
Literally last weekend now the storms had passed, floods gone I took numerous photos and raised the issues this week, I've spotted workmen on the lane just doing the assessment, no work undertaken, but I'd imagine it won't be long. Some of the ones raised are that deep the car runs out of ground clearance and being a single track lane are unavoidable in my car.
I live in a very rural area and there are two main roads to take me to the nearest town and motorway junction, one used to be heaven to ride or drive upon, open fast flowing roads for around 8 miles, the other not so much. However, the preferred road has degraded so much that there were (filled) and re-appeared huge potholes on some sections, I've seen cars, vans ambulances even stranded there at night after hitting the gaping void. It's gotten to the point where unless it's daytime I'll used the lesser road to avoid these obstacles whether that be car or bike.
To make matters worse, we live down a single track country lane, dead end. There are 4 houses and surrounded by farm land, so there isn't much usage and no street lights. the road is around a mile long and we live around 1/2 way up. When we moved in back in 2019 the local council had plans to resurface the road which they promptly did, now this wasn't tarmac, they had a machine that effectively ripped up the existing road surface and re-used it mixed with whatever else and it was relaid. It took 2 days in all to complete this and looked amazing.
A few months later, the surface started to degrade in patches, probably due to farm vehicles using it rather than cars, numerous potholes began to appear and I duly spent a long time taking photos and going through the laborious process of raising these with the council via their terrible web site. To their credit they did repair these pretty quickly, but it wasn't long before they either failed or more started to appear.
Rinse and repeat several times before the council decided again to resurface the entire road again, probably 2022 by now. Again exactly the same process and looked amazing.... You guessing it, a bit a dejavu and I'm logging issues again.
Literally last weekend now the storms had passed, floods gone I took numerous photos and raised the issues this week, I've spotted workmen on the lane just doing the assessment, no work undertaken, but I'd imagine it won't be long. Some of the ones raised are that deep the car runs out of ground clearance and being a single track lane are unavoidable in my car.
This thread reminded me to report a pothole I avoided driving into the office this morning. Turns out there are already 7 other reports on the council website going back to the start of January. All are "Enquiry Ongoing".
I got a new car on lease in November. Best thing about it? I went from 18" alloys to 16" and it's lovely having big squidgy sidewalls.
I got a new car on lease in November. Best thing about it? I went from 18" alloys to 16" and it's lovely having big squidgy sidewalls.
The Government has found £1.6bn to fix potholes in the UK in 2025, that's about £160 for each pothole and double what was allowed for road maintenance in 2024 supposedly.
I have to admit, locally at least, the situation has improved. The older ones are gone, and new ones are all painted yellow so I suspect something is going to happen to them soon.
I have to admit, locally at least, the situation has improved. The older ones are gone, and new ones are all painted yellow so I suspect something is going to happen to them soon.
In a lot of the country, they don't even seem able to keep up with the white line maintenance, never mind potholes.
Some parts of Scotland in particular are absolutely terrible, there's stretches of the motorways around Glasgow where you only really know how many lanes there are because of the lines of cars and (usually also well past their best) cats eyes.
I'm fortunate to live in one of the few parts of the country where the council do seem bothered to maintain the roads to a reasonable standard. Interestingly, they took roads maintenance back in house about 5 years ago because of the amount of money they were wasting managing sub-contractors so I wonder if this part of the reason they are better.
I sometimes think the roads are a bit rubbish locally, and then I travel further afield and realise just how bad much of the rest of the country is!!
Some parts of Scotland in particular are absolutely terrible, there's stretches of the motorways around Glasgow where you only really know how many lanes there are because of the lines of cars and (usually also well past their best) cats eyes.
I'm fortunate to live in one of the few parts of the country where the council do seem bothered to maintain the roads to a reasonable standard. Interestingly, they took roads maintenance back in house about 5 years ago because of the amount of money they were wasting managing sub-contractors so I wonder if this part of the reason they are better.
I sometimes think the roads are a bit rubbish locally, and then I travel further afield and realise just how bad much of the rest of the country is!!
t in the UK when it comes to roads.Getting on for abhorrent round here. On one side of the village there is a lot of HGV traffic and those roads have serious chunks missing. A lot of people now have been able to memorise the locations and you can see people expertly weaving around all over the place making progress and avoiding the holes.
On the other side the other main road out is basically a patchwork quilt of "dug up and refilled" and "slop a ladle of black tarmac in and stamp it". Its been closed for a few weeks whilst either the water board or the gas board dug up sizeable sections at regular intervals. They then filled these in and tarmac'd over them fairly well but it didn't take long for them to go all ripply and bobbly.
Anyway 2 weeks later they're back digging it all up again - the same holes. Sections of that road are also subsided, so people tend to drive in the middle as well. Its still an NSL road, but unless you've got a Range Rover or something I genuinely don't think you could comfortably drive any more than about 40-45MPH unless you like being intensely jostled and don't mind your suspension bushes being pounded into dust.
On the other side the other main road out is basically a patchwork quilt of "dug up and refilled" and "slop a ladle of black tarmac in and stamp it". Its been closed for a few weeks whilst either the water board or the gas board dug up sizeable sections at regular intervals. They then filled these in and tarmac'd over them fairly well but it didn't take long for them to go all ripply and bobbly.
Anyway 2 weeks later they're back digging it all up again - the same holes. Sections of that road are also subsided, so people tend to drive in the middle as well. Its still an NSL road, but unless you've got a Range Rover or something I genuinely don't think you could comfortably drive any more than about 40-45MPH unless you like being intensely jostled and don't mind your suspension bushes being pounded into dust.
Skyedriver said:
Exactly this and when they come off, it's their fault ot the Highway Authorities.
Coming from a lifetime in Civil Engineering, a lot of it dealing with Highways, the problem is age. Roads are designed to have a lifespan, 25 or maybe 40 years in the case of motorways etc. After which, the need to be rebuilt as the actual structure, not the surfacing is starting to fail. Vehicle numbers, trucks etc have become more numerous than expected and much heavier. (Cars don't really count). However the Highways Authorities are strapped for cash, can't afford to fully reconstruct roads so either take the "sticking plaster" approach, slapping a bit of repair material in the hole which lasts maybe a year but the first frost and water in the material freezes, expands and the material gets left lying across the road as a gravel trap, or, they plane off the surface course and provide a nice running surface for a while but as the actual structure is failing it only lasts so long before it's back to square one.
Add to this, utility companies digging up the road and not carrying out reinstatements correctly (they usually do a temp reinstatement and are supposed to notify the HA who do the full reinstatement) and drainage collapses, etc .
TL:DR it ain't gonna get any better.
As a trucker the A14 Stretch going towards Felixstowe is just so bloody dangerous. The tramlines on the inside lane at some parts is bloody crazy the trucks have a mind of their own and it feels like you are going to topple over! Coming from a lifetime in Civil Engineering, a lot of it dealing with Highways, the problem is age. Roads are designed to have a lifespan, 25 or maybe 40 years in the case of motorways etc. After which, the need to be rebuilt as the actual structure, not the surfacing is starting to fail. Vehicle numbers, trucks etc have become more numerous than expected and much heavier. (Cars don't really count). However the Highways Authorities are strapped for cash, can't afford to fully reconstruct roads so either take the "sticking plaster" approach, slapping a bit of repair material in the hole which lasts maybe a year but the first frost and water in the material freezes, expands and the material gets left lying across the road as a gravel trap, or, they plane off the surface course and provide a nice running surface for a while but as the actual structure is failing it only lasts so long before it's back to square one.
Add to this, utility companies digging up the road and not carrying out reinstatements correctly (they usually do a temp reinstatement and are supposed to notify the HA who do the full reinstatement) and drainage collapses, etc .
TL:DR it ain't gonna get any better.
At least with potholes you can see them. Tramlines are a bit more difficult to spot. Especially when they fill up with ice!
Another reason I gave up on my Ducati and Abarth 695. So rare to find a decent smooth road.
Replacement Bonneville has a larger front wheel and much softer suspension.
My Alpine manages to handle well whilst floating over the holes despite 19ins wheels and a thin strip of tyre.
Maybe the French have the same problems with their roads.
I'll find out next week.
Replacement Bonneville has a larger front wheel and much softer suspension.
My Alpine manages to handle well whilst floating over the holes despite 19ins wheels and a thin strip of tyre.
Maybe the French have the same problems with their roads.
I'll find out next week.
Gassing Station | Roads | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff