Rant: Bloody gravel on the roads...

Post by **firestorm996** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:04 pm

Hi all

Recently our local council has seen fit to chuck loads of gravel down on otherwise pretty reasonably surfaced roads, a pet hate of mine.... The first I knew of this was a few nights ago when as I was filtering through two lanes of traffic coming up to some lights, the lights changed when I was maybe 3 or 4 cars from the front. I gassed it to avoid getting sandwiched in (I always prefer to just get past rather than mingle...) and lo and behold there's a gravel pit right between the lanes as we cross the junction through the lights. So at around 50mph (I had just gassed it) I get completely sideways enough that I was out of the seat and hanging on the side of the bike.

Partly my own daft fault I suppose but I was watching traffic rather than road surface, and until then I;d seen no signs warning about the new 'surface'. Further down the road they've chucked down loads of the stuff and it's obviously just got scattered into the middle of the road as it tends to...

Anyone else get this sort of thing? I think I'm going to write to the council about it because I was honestly not far of going for a tumble...

Personally I think I'd rather have potholes than gravel on the road.

adfski · Post by **adfski** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:20 pm

Absolutely - couldn't agree more. What is mildly annoying in a car as it rattles around your wheel arches is deadly to a bike.

Can you believe they actually did large sections of the TT mountain section in this fashion. I mean if the manx DOT don't have a surfacing system that is sympathetic to bikers - what hope have you lot got?

All I can say is it must be really cheap compared to the alternatives because the hospital bills can't be cheap!

RANT!!!!!

tattie · Post by **tattie** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:46 pm

Hi, Al 996,
Yes it is that time of year when the roads have been swept clear of all the winter/spring crap and they start to put out the bitumen emulsion and top dressing of about 12" of crushed stone. Last week my self and the young fella were going to a job up north via the A836 in the van.
About 1 1/4 miles past the Dornoch bridge roundabout there is a steep crest followed by a slight left turn, on approaching the crest ( well about 4 meters from it there was a regular roadworks sign and just on the crest another sign with the dreaded words "RAMP". FFS!!! the downside of the crest was all tarplaned, you know the lovely groovy pattern that wants to make the front wheel go the opposite way to the back, this road is used by a lot of tourists and locals on bikes, and how nobody came a cropper there I will never know. They are now putting layers of nice black stuff down and will no doubt cover it in the "Hardwearing Chippings" soon.
What I also find funny is that they have raised the gulleys at the side of the road and the camber appears to be running the the opposite way.
Have you noticed the shellgrip that is applied on the approach to most roundabouts nearly always ends up (the loose stuff that is )on the outer lane of the roundabouts in fine semicircular heaps just waiting to catch out a biker.
I contacted the "Trunk Route" maintenance engineers a few years ago regarding this matter, on all the roundabouts on the A9, A82 and A96 they said the sub contractors concerned would be informed and would take appropriate action.
You guessed it, they did bugger all. I have found I get better sucess by contacting my local councillor.

Cheers

A.M.

ps, chippings or no chippings, we up here still have the best roads in the country

RedStormV · Post by **RedStormV** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 2:05 am

Oh hell aye!

3 of the 4 local councils near me have been up to this ludicrous behaviour recently.

Oh how I wish they would do a proper job as Tattie says, plane the surface and relay some decent stuff.
They did our little cul-de-sac like that last year, but the road that runs along the top of ours has just had the 'light dusting' treatment!

The useless contractors have missed bits all over too - just shiny tar emulsion patches and no chippings!
I've seen more roads around mine done in same way, as well as Halifax and Kirklees council areas - not seen any in Leeds yet.

They did a long sweeping bnd section of main road, just off a roundabout near me last year, within 3 months, the bloody thing was just tar - all the chippings had either worn off or been driven in! less grip than the 'old' 'proper' surface they'd covered!

Sure it must be cheaper to do it than to plane and re-surface, but about as much feckin' use as a glass hammer!

Anyone work in the industry 'Black Stuff' (giz a job, I can do that!) or for a transport dept that can comment?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Beamish · Post by **Beamish** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 9:21 am

Oh yes I feel this one ! Local council shut down major road to and from the east coast, they put in diversions to direct the traffic then................................................................................................................. THEY RESURFACE TWO OF THE DIVERSION ROUTES !!!!!!!

What the fook are they thinking!

Pete.L · Post by **Pete.L** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 9:27 am

Same old story here in the south west.
Chippings everywhere and mainly on roads which don't need it. The ones which do get forgotten

Beamish said

What the fook are they thinking!

I think that's the point Beamish, I don't think they think at all

Pete.l

custard · Post by **custard** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 9:52 am

I'm pretty sure that the local council down here are on a massive bikehating scheme!

I'm sure some of you will have heard of the Torpoint Twisties - they are fairly well known and fullof some nice sweepers. At a May bike meet down here we were speaking to some of the enemy who told us that they were putting up average speed cameras throughout the twisties in August.

About a week after the show we went for a blast through the twisties - no cameras but signs everywhere about bikes being 2% of traffic and 50% of deaths, and bikers have died here going to fast on this corner etc.

2 weeks later - went down the coast or cornwall, came back and fancied a good old rinse through the twisties. Not long after beginning we see a sign on the side of the road '20MPH' and just behind it the loose gravel sign. We slowed down to an 'acceptable' speed to pass through, but after 1.5 miles thought 'why the f@:k is there even gravel here. Moving slowly I gently put my feet down. There was enough gravel for my feet to literally skim across the surface - like rolling over marbles!

This went on for 4 or so miles and seemed like the council etc had literally just gone out, knowing there would be loads of bikers playing on that route over the summer and cover it in gravel.

It's now dangerous so I guess they've won. Tossers

Wicky · Post by **Wicky** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:01 am

This happened to me many moons ago in a village near me when I came off on gravel at night after braking on a residential road without any warning signs.

Road contractors are obliged to have warning signs for a certain period after resurfacing. I wrote to a highways maintenance company pretending I was a student and got them to send me a copy of their code of conduct which sets out all their obligations.

I got photos and witnesses of the state of the road - though the council is meant to keep a record of reports of hazardous conditions they've received from the public (showing that they were aware of a problem previous to an accident occuring), don't bank on them releasing it to you if they get a whiff that you'll be using it against them.

Armed with al the above (and at a time when legal aid was more easily accessible) - all in all it took over 3 years to get an out-of court settlement for compensation from the council for personal injuries and damages to the bike, just before it was due to go to court

http://www.dft.gov.uk/about/dftpubdatab ... cemangmnt/

Drac · Post by **Drac** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 5:35 pm

Surface dressing you are talking about..yup its cheap..but it's a good treatment when used on the right roads.

firstly there should allways be advance warning stating loose chippings and a max speed limit..we use 20mph, but also a sign saying no road markings.

The carriageway needs to be structurally sound for this treatment. some places you might find the road in question has been patched some weeks or months before hand ..just structural patching on weak areas.

personally i don't like it..but if it stops a road potholling or subsiding due to water ingress...

RedStormV · Post by **RedStormV** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 5:39 pm

Well,
after the deluge of rain at around 01:45-03:30 here last night, (never seen the like of it, was bouncing about 24"!!), went out to work on the bike this morning.

The road at top of ours where they've recently spread tar and chipping had a right good wash! bottom of the road (slight incline) where it meets the main road, big pile of chippings right across the carriageway, about 5" deep! Just about where I'd normally be pulling on the front anchor!

Still there tonight, never a road sweeper when you want one!

Feckers!

Feckin' Rain!

sparrowlegs · Post by **sparrowlegs** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 8:31 pm

Aaaahhh the good old chickenshit and tar treatment.....they have just done that to the roads to my stables, i had a helluva job picking tar blobs off my bike never mind the stone chips

Drac · Post by **Drac** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 3:04 pm

if you are picking up bitumen, they have used too much. Last thing you want to see on surface dressing is fatting up, ie tar coming to the surface.

fatting up happens over time , or if the surface dressing is laid during very hot weather or they just used too much.

the over time isnt a real problem as it never reaches it really liquid state and appears gradually. laid in too hot weather and it not bedding in with the aggregate means you have differential skid resistances. too much at the start and they should do it again.

Stratman · Post by **Stratman** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 9:03 pm

Sounds like a candidate for a No10 petition?

Dean O · Post by **Dean O** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 9:43 pm

had the same thing here a month ago - loose chippings 1" deep initially, then after a few days of rain, random piles of em up to 5" deep. I complained to our local highways engineer, pointing out the dangers to bikers & threatening to send phoos the local paper. apparently, they usually leave the chippings for a week or so to get bedded in by traffic ffs

anyway, I wasn't impressed and confirmed my complaint via email - he phoned me back 10 mins later & promised to send a road sweeper next day - it was fully swept along the entire 3 mile section before 9am next day

Post by **firestorm996** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 6:29 pm

Drac

I take your points mate, but currently there's a couple of stretches of road maybe 1-2' wide and hundreds of feet long which are covered in loose gravel. Now obviously I'm going to avoid them when on the bike but what happens should someone pull out on me and I have to anchor up then try to swerve around them? We don't always have a choice on what part of the road we use in an emergency...