Saturday, 1 March 2025
Filler
Earlier this week found Mrs H and I driving along the A610 dual carriageway towards the IKEA exit. Ahead of us was one of those small Motorway Maintenance trucks and some way ahead of that were two more trucks, one in each carriageway with their amber warning lights flashing.
The single truck ahead of us then moved into the centre of the road, straddling both carriageways with its amber warning lights flashing, at which point it slowly began to slow down before stopping altogether so that vehicles behind it couldn't pass.
We watched as a few men climbed out of the two further trucks and began to work away at something in the middle of the road. We couldn't quite see what they were doing, but it looked like a spot of hasty spade work before they climbed back into their trucks and everyone moved off again.
As we drove past the spot where the Motorway Maintenance gang had been working, we could see that they had filled a large pothole with tarmac. It hadn't been rolled or flattened down much, just given a few whacks with a spade from the look of it.
Not something we've seen before, but quick and cheap presumably. Not so sure about the durability of the 'repair' though.
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6 comments:
"the durability of the 'repair'" Negligible, but in a typical council move, now the locals can't say the potholes aren't being dealt with.
Jannie - that's probably it - an innovative new technique, faster and cheaper, lasts all week.
Very cheap, in the short term. The big lorry wasn't available as it has been fitted with a bit of drainpipe to look like a tank, and shipped off to Ukraine.
Our well maintained highways and byways.
Apologies for the profanity, but this sounds like a low-tech version of what we have come to call the ‘“f*** it, that’ll do” machine’, otherwise known as a Dragon Patcher, sold to our council as a cheap and speedy way of fixing potholes (it runs on recycled vegetable oil too - they couldn’t resist that).
The edges of our single-track rural lanes are now adorned with haphazard patches of tarmac laid directly on top of mud and gravel with a coating of bitumen sprayed liberally over the lot, grass included; six weeks later, the whole lot has disintegrated and the potholes are back again.
Still, as The Jannie says, a box has been ticked.
Sam - ha ha - so that's why the pothole problem is worse, big lorries with drainpipes sent off to Ukraine. It's low carbon warfare too.
James - I prefer not to wonder what visitors think, bumping up and down along those leafy lanes.
Macheath - oh dear, I can see Derbyshire buying a Dragon Patcher with similar results, especially if it runs on recycled vegetable oil. Tick!
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