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I have a theory. Each county council employs a guy to travel its roads with a spray can. He circles each pothole he finds and adds some meaningless symbols. Drivers assume that at last something is being done. Result - less hassle at County Hall.
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Certainly fits the description here in Somerset.
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For the last few weeks I have been avoiding a particularly deep one at a T-junction on my way to work. I was just beginning to build up a head of steam about it and preparing to complain when they filled it in! Not a bad job either!
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A few years ago a council workman went down our road with a white spray can highlighting some of the potholes, however I did not think he was very consciencious and having a spare can of white paint from a previous car touch up job I decided to help the council out my painting round a few more. It worked they all got mended and the smaller holes did not turn into larger ones a few weeks later. A stitch in time saves nine as my mum used to say.
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Love it. I think I will invest in a can of yellow paint which is what they use in my part of Suffolk.
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Godfrey,
Just watch the toes of your shoes, overspray sticks like the devil and is a dead giveaway.
David
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Terrific idea! It's got to be worth a try!
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I travel on a lot of small back roads - they seem to think lobbing a bit of tarmac in is a cure-all. I reckon it takes about 10 days to break up after the "fix". If they did it properly it would last years.
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I beg to differ!
My mother's hobby appears to be reporting potholes [1]. They get repaired in record time. SHe claims her record was an 8:30 phone call resulting in a 9:30 fix! [2]
[1] Funny watching your parents age.
[2] This is exceptional but they do get patched - and in days rather than weeks.
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Why is it that the companies who dig up the road are allowed to get away with just patching up the road? After a few months the potholes will begin to appear around the edges of the patch-up job. They should be made to resurface the whole road.
In the street that I live in some one has dug up across the road a number of times - they were filled in and have now all subsided leaving a 2-3 inch depression. Why do I have to pay for it (thru my council tax) to have it repaired when these companies are posting profits in the billions.
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Dave
My, your mum gets her fix quickly ;-)
Glad to see your parents get patched quickly too!
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You're all very lucky. In Manila agencies of infinite variety from water to phone to cable tv to power and light to sewerage MAKE potholes. THese may be genuine, i.e. in the course of repairs, or quite often totally unnecessary -- just imaginary work carried out so firms can submit bogus bills to gov't. They may get filled in when a senator or the mayor's wife feels the bumps as their vehicle and its escorts pass over them, or when an election is due or when a personage pays a visit. Some of the holes are plenty big enough to partially swallow motorized tricycles, and they do. 2-3 years is quite common before the thing gets so huge it can no longer be ignored. Our once beautiful boulevard round the once famed Manila Bay with its flaming palm-fringed sunsets has been dug up since 1999 when the Maynilad Water Company went broke. We had the President of Romania here a few weeks back and that meant about 2 km did get filled in. Maybe UK could send some of its useless politicians over here, they could at last perform a real public service by causing the authorities to fill in some holes and fix a few of the non-working traffic lights on the way from the airport into town.
What the heck? We have cheap beer and beautiful women......
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when I was in Kenya in 1985 I went down a road that had been built for Queen Victoria and had never been resurfaced!! There were islands of tarmac standing about 2 foot above the "road" surface.
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Growler,
Can you put our politicians in holes and *then* cover them up?
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Growler
Stephen Byers and John Prescott are on their way!
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"What the heck? We have cheap beer and beautiful women......"
Hey that's outrageous.
We have cheap beer here!
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I have personal experience of working for councils in Kent. If as a subcontractor you are instructed to repair/patch a road it must be done to very high standards. You arent paid if it isn't. However if the councils own crew do the job it's often good enough just to dump a shovel full of tarmac in the hole, jump on it and drive away. Dual Standards.
To answer CM. it may be that a temporary repair has been carried out by a stat. company and they will do a permanent repair within 6 months. that allows settlement of the trench and a better repair in the long term. Thats the theory but it doesn'nt always follow through.
Write to the Chief Engineer at the council and keep on his back.
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No problem disposing of your excess (and excessive) politicians. Just a quiet word to the Triads or one of the "salvage squads" here and no need to worry. Costs very affordable. You can have them in potholes, in pillars helping to support new flyovers, in concrete boots at the bottom of the Pasig River supporting the government's plans to attract fish back into this polluted waterway. These are some of the standard options. For a reasonable amount extra, an unrepeatable close-up study encounter with sharks, dropping from helicopters into volcanoes are available for example, or a long free holiday as guests on the Abu Sayyaf's jungle wildlife study course. I joke not: people disappear here all the time.
One of the gentlemen you mention might like to experience the Philippine Railways. Rather like those in UK you have to make an appointment and clear your calendar if you want to use them. He'd feel right at home.
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To be fair to the highways agency in N Ireland I have found on two occasions that they respond promptly to a pothole report in an email to and fix it quickly as well.
Perhaps the highways departments in the English (and Welsh and Scottish)counties have a similar email address.
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T G Webb
Pigs might fly !
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Yes,
Nice.
I just drove into one this evening on an industrial estate in Iver, Bucks.
It's broken the engine under-tray and valence under the bumper (and goodness know what else).
Anyone ever had this experience? Can I bill the highways agency - local council - industrial estate owner???
Advice much appreciated.
Martin.
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El Dingo
You'll have to see if the road is adopted if you want to bill the local authority. It will have all the usual street furniture, white lining, street lights etc. or phone and ask them. If not then the only way may be go after the owner of the estate. I bet there's a disclaimer somewhere though. Maybe the legal experts can help you there.
Good luck
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