The State of our roads !!

Gigabit said:
Defending our roads with "they could be worse", is a pretty poor defence.

What I find most frustrating is the lack of consistency. In general, motorways are pretty good (the loud surface disregarded, probably a cost thing?), as are major A-roads, i.e. roads maintained by the Highways Agency. They seem to be fairly consistently fine and repaired pretty quickly, although there are some nasty potholes appearing on the M3 near Basingstoke, as an example.
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Highways England maintain the motorways and major trunk roads ;).

Gigabit said:
The rubbish roads are council roads. IMHO, roads should be managed centrally, all by the Highways Agency. I believe this is the case in other countries. Councils make crap decisions on road surfaces and maintenance and don't take long-term views of things.
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Highways England roads can be just as good or bad as local highway authority roads. Here is a recent news article of the A2 in Kent (HE maintained) and the impact after the recent cold weather we've had:
If Central Government were to properly fund road maintenance then long term solutions such as full road reconstruction would likely be more prominent than it is now. Fully reconstructing a road is by far the most expensive way to maintain a road and is simply not affordable for local authorities to carry out across the whole of their networks. Other more affordable surfacing methods such as micro surfacing or surface dressing are also used to help extend the life of roads (with pre-patching carried out prior to this to repair deep defects etc.) Smaller patching and pothole repair works are by far the most widely raised jobs carried out mostly due to budge restraints. Sometimes 'splat and pat' (cold lay) repairs may be carried out to make safe an imminent hazard until such times as proper repairs can be raised (hot lay). Even 'splat and pat' repairs can last for years if done correctly (I know as I've done some).

Gigabit said:
The other thing is how companies who dig up the roads for gas, etc. don't have to return the road to the original condition. This should be made into law.
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There is. The New Roads and Street Works Act (NRSWA) and Specification of the Reinstatement of Openings in Highways (SROH) cover utilities work.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/street-works
https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...for-the-reinstatement-of-openings-in-highways

It's worth remembering that there are lots of services that are beneath the roads in the UK which need to be maintained and supplied to properties. The amount of people who expect an uninterrupted service (water, gas, electric, telephony/broadband) but yet shout and moan when street works are carried out to install/repair such services is a nightmare :rolleyes:.
Other countries have the space and layout that services are located outside of the carriageway (service strips or similar) which are few and far between in the UK. Even when there are service strips in the UK, some residents go and plant trees/shrubs/bushes and then complain that a utility has to dig in it to repair there water/gas/electric etc. :rolleyes:.
 
Amp34 said:
Do you know any countries that have a central agency that deals with all roads? Mos places I know have the same system as the UK where local authorities and organizations deal with certain roads in certain places.
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To be honest, I thought Italy did. I thought Switzerland did too but I think I'm wrong and its managed at a "state" (I know they're not states) level, so a higher level than the UK, as the areas are much larger.

I confess it was a bit of a stupid point and I can't really back it up, sorry!

What I do think, is that the councils in this country clearly can't be trusted to manage the roads properly.

A31 is Highways Agency managed I think? Near to Guildford it's recently been resurfaced and it is utterly glorious to drive on. Not a single pothole and it's quiet, almost like a French road. Shame it doesn't last long.

The roads need more investment, like most things. But the Government want austerity. I remember pre-2010 there was a temporary huge increase in road resurfacings before the budgets all got cut.
 
Zico said:
Highways England maintain the motorways and major trunk roads ;).



Highways England roads can be just as good or bad as local highway authority roads. Here is a recent news article of the A2 in Kent (HE maintained) and the impact after the recent cold weather we've had:
If Central Government were to properly fund road maintenance then long term solutions such as full road reconstruction would likely be more prominent than it is now. Fully reconstructing a road is by far the most expensive way to maintain a road and is simply not affordable for local authorities to carry out across the whole of their networks. Other more affordable surfacing methods such as micro surfacing or surface dressing are also used to help extend the life of roads (with pre-patching carried out prior to this to repair deep defects etc.) Smaller patching and pothole repair works are by far the most widely raised jobs carried out mostly due to budge restraints. Sometimes 'splat and pat' (cold lay) repairs may be carried out to make safe an imminent hazard until such times as proper repairs can be raised (hot lay). Even 'splat and pat' repairs can last for years if done correctly (I know as I've done some).



There is. The New Roads and Street Works Act (NRSWA) and Specification of the Reinstatement of Openings in Highways (SROH) cover utilities work.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/street-works
https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...for-the-reinstatement-of-openings-in-highways

It's worth remembering that there are lots of services that are beneath the roads in the UK which need to be maintained and supplied to properties. The amount of people who expect an uninterrupted service (water, gas, electric, telephony/broadband) but yet shout and moan when street works are carried out to install/repair such services is a nightmare :rolleyes:.
Other countries have the space and layout that services are located outside of the carriageway (service strips or similar) which are few and far between in the UK. Even when there are service strips in the UK, some residents go and plant trees/shrubs/bushes and then complain that a utility has to dig in it to repair there water/gas/electric etc. :rolleyes:.
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Sorry yes Highways England.

I notice though, they're already repairing that road going by the article? Council roads take years to repair, if they ever get done at all.

As I say, the large issue is the surface used which just seems to be crap in many cases. As I mentioned above, the new surface on the A31 near Guildford is great, don't know why that can't be used everywhere.

Interesting re the law changed, shame every company seems to ignore it as I saw some mess being made just the last couple of weeks.
 
The A2 has had several nights of closures for repairs to be carried out by HE. They simply can't afford to leave the road in such as state as it's the main route to the Port of Dover :). The HE also have the money to do so in comparison to Kent County Council who don't have the same resources to do the same for their network. KCC recently carried out major surfacing along the A299 which follows on from the M2 to Thanet and that diverted a large sum of money that could have been used elsewhere in the county. Unfortunately the A299 needed the repairs so it wasn't a decision taken lightly :(.

Regarding the utilities work, they can carry out temporary reinstatements when carrying out their works. This obviously doesn't look good (or even last very long at times) before a permanent reinstatement is carried out (can be in temp upto 6 months after works stop). Either way, the utility who carries out the work is responsible for the reinstatement and must complete the permanent repair before the guarantee period beings (2 years or 3 years if greater than 1.5m deep). If during this period the reinstatement fails, this is defected back to the utility to repair. If such repairs are still not to standard it can continue to go back until such times as it's correctly carried out. Even local authority works can be defected and handed back to the contractor to carry out repairs again at the companies expense (at least there is a system in place in KCC).
 
People only moan when they see closed roads and no one actually working on them during the day, often not even started but the road is still closed. Last time I came across this in a rural area I just chucked the cones out of the way and drove though. No one there to stop me :p
 
There may be many reasons why a road is closed and you don't see anyone working on them. Voids beneath the highway, flooding, gas escapes, surfacing/reinstatements awaiting curing, building works (scaffolding etc.) or even unsafe trees/buildings etc. .

Remember that you can be prosecuted for ignoring warning signs the next time you go and move cones/barriers and drive through a road closure. Highway/road workers may be on site elsewhere and shouldn't have to dodge vehicles that ignore signs and drive through a closure.

There was a point made in a presentation at a Street Works conference a number of years back where it was stated that the number road workers killed was higher than military service men/women that served in the Iraq war. There are remembrance services and parades for military services, where do you see those for road workers!
 
The country is in a state of decline and not just the roads. I would gladly pay more tax to put things right if I had any faith whatsoever that the money would be spent wisely.
 
The HMRC kindly sent me a letter a few weeks back that stated £1073 of my tax (almost 25%) was spent on Welfare compared to £185 on Transport (tax year 2016-2017).
 
Dodged one the other day on the A43 and then immediately passed two cars in the hard shoulder both with (at best) front flats, at worst god knows. It was ridiculous though, I reckon it was at least 200mm deep and about the size of a manhole cover.
 
the roads around me have gotten noticeably worse, I own a lowered mx5 and I actually have to avoid a number of roads now vs when I moved in because they have subsided so much. potholes I can avoid but when the whole road is waving like you're on a rollercoaster I cant do!
 
kinetic747 said:
The country is in a state of decline and not just the roads. I would gladly pay more tax to put things right if I had any faith whatsoever that the money would be spent wisely.
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It's not that they don't get enough money. They are just crap at spending it, or waste it on massively over-priced contractors to do everything.
 
I agree with this I’ve never known them to be so bad as they have been this year. What’s going on. A good portion of my commute is spent dodging a horrendous amount of potholes
 
Zico said:
The HMRC kindly sent me a letter a few weeks back that stated £1073 of my tax (almost 25%) was spent on Welfare compared to £185 on Transport (tax year 2016-2017).
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Id like to gkow where are the ROAD TAX money going... New speed cameras ?? For sure not to fill go damn Holes !!!
 
Zeed said:
Id like to gkow where are the ROAD TAX money going... New speed cameras ?? For sure not to fill go damn Holes !!!
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Business rates redistribution and council tax is how most council road repairs are paid for. Money councils get directly from government (other than for schools) is rapidly approaching zero.

Most of the bad roads I see are council maintained roads. Whist red routes seem to have a ton of money spent on them, resurfaced frequently.
 
Zico said:
The HMRC kindly sent me a letter a few weeks back that stated £1073 of my tax (almost 25%) was spent on Welfare compared to £185 on Transport (tax year 2016-2017).
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What do you know, Pensions for the elderly and other benefits receive greater priority than roads, ya know, coz they are lives not tarmac.
 
Dr Who said:
What do you know, Pensions for the elderly and other benefits receive greater priority than roads, ya know, coz they are lives not tarmac.
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I'm not saying I know anything, I'm just stating the difference in what the HMRC have shown in the break down of where my tax has gone. I could give you all figures for all categories but I doubt you would care.
 
Zeed said:
Id like to gkow where are the ROAD TAX money going... New speed cameras ?? For sure not to fill go damn Holes !!!
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Road tax stopped existing decades ago. Vehicle Excise Duty is just a general taxation and isn't ring fenced for transport spending.
 
Zico said:
I'm not saying I know anything, I'm just stating the difference in what the HMRC have shown in the break down of where my tax has gone. I could give you all figures for all categories but I doubt you would care.
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Actually I care a lot, I monitor https://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/breakdown regularly, I was commenting on your comparison of welfare vs transport which was made like it was somehow comparable....

Less than a quarter of the figure you quoted for transport is spent on the roads by the way.
 
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