Sheffield Roads Nearly As Bad As In 2011

[Findlay]

I cant find any reference to it but I once heared that german autobahns are half a metre thick concrete. 
Our roads are millimetres thick of one or two bound pieces of tarmac.

They need to be bound much better with at least double depth AND supported with understanding why the hole is there in the first place with a suitable ballast foundation.
The shape of a road is supposed to be slightly curved so its high in the middle and slopes to the gutters. What you see now is a wave of HGV tracks in each lane.

[Top4719]

I remember when Councils had highways departments (I know people that worked for them) roads need planned and reactive maintainance and these guys used to do the work adequatly in the days when there wasn't really any means for the public to have to report problems, another situation where a totally shoddy service is provided at a premium cost to the public.

[Planner1]

15 hours ago, Findlay said:

I cant find any reference to it but I once heared that german autobahns are half a metre thick concrete. 
Our roads are millimetres thick of one or two bound pieces of tarmac.

They need to be bound much better with at least double depth AND supported with understanding why the hole is there in the first place with a suitable ballast foundation.
The shape of a road is supposed to be slightly curved so its high in the middle and slopes to the gutters. What you see now is a wave of HGV tracks in each lane.

So you’re an experienced and qualified highway engineer are you?

 

It isn’t exactly fair to compare a huge motorway that carries an enormous amount of high speed traffic to a back street in Sheffield.

 

A quick search will tell you that  concrete German motorways have about 300mm concrete construction ( it varies).

 

There are concrete motorways in England, there have been concrete roads in Sheffield.

 

There are pluses and minuses with any type of road construction. Concrete lasts a long time, but is difficult and expensive to repair. Doesn’t lend itself well to the way we tend to bury utility services in the road here in the uk.

 

Road construction is decided by many factors including the volume and type of traffic that will be using them, the terrain and underlying geology. Expected lifetime and cost come into it too. It’s  horses for courses.

 

Every country has its own design standards and government guidance on road construction.

 

Road condition is a national issue and successive governments have significantly underfunded road maintenance for decades. The national backlog of repairs is currently estimated at £14 billion.

[hackey lad]

3 minutes ago, Planner1 said:

So you’re an experienced and qualified highway engineer are you?

 

It isn’t exactly fair to compare a huge motorway that carries an enormous amount of high speed traffic to a back street in Sheffield.

 

A quick search will tell you that  concrete German motorways have about 300mm concrete construction ( it varies).

 

There are concrete motorways in England, there have been concrete roads in Sheffield.

 

There are pluses and minuses with any type of road construction. Concrete lasts a long time, but is difficult and expensive to repair. Doesn’t lend itself well to the way we tend to bury utility services in the road here in the uk.

 

Road construction is decided by many factors including the volume and type of traffic that will be using them, the terrain and underlying geology. Expected lifetime and cost come into it too. It’s  horses for courses.

 

Every country has its own design standards and government guidance on road construction.

 

Road condition is a national issue and successive governments have significantly underfunded road maintenance for decades. The national backlog of repairs is currently estimated at £14 billion.

But Amey were brought in and paid

to give us “ beautiful smooth roads “ . 

[Planner1]

10 minutes ago, hackey lad said:

But Amey were brought in and paid

to give us “ beautiful smooth roads “ . 

I bet it doesn’t say those words in the contract specification.

[hackey lad]

Sounds like you are defending them and the contract . Are the roads any better since the start of the contract  ?

[HeHasRisen]

To be fair, the contract wont use those words, thats just press release/PR speak.

[Planner1]

5 minutes ago, hackey lad said:

Sounds like you are defending them and the contract . Are the roads any better since the start of the contract  ?

Sounds like you are constantly trying to criticise the council.

 

I’m pointing out a fact to you. The contract will not be couched in those terms.

 

The roads condition in general did improve significantly over the investment period ( when the major amount of resurfacing was done). My own observation would be that overall condition is now deteriorating and in some places is as bad or possibly worse than before Amey took over. Difficult to say with any accuracy as it’s been a good few years.

 

Amey / the council will have records of overall condition as they carry out periodic monitoring with special vehicles.

[hackey lad]

2 minutes ago, Planner1 said:

Sounds like you are constantly trying to criticise the council.

 

I’m pointing out a fact to you. The contract will not be couched in those terms.

 

The roads condition in general did improve significantly over the investment period ( when the major amount of resurfacing was done). My own observation would be that overall condition is now deteriorating and in some places is as bad or possibly worse than before Amey took over. Difficult to say with any accuracy as it’s been a good few years.

 

Amey / the council will have records of overall condition as they carry out periodic monitoring with special vehicles.

Thank you . Yes I do criticise the council but with good cause I think. 

[Planner1]

4 minutes ago, hackey lad said:

Thank you . Yes I do criticise the council but with good cause I think. 

You’re entitled to your opinions.

 

My observation is that wherever you go, people have the same complaints about their local authorities. They tend to think their council / MCA etc is incompetent, that their roads are in the worst condition, that their public transport is the worst etc.

 

I have dealt with a lot of local authorities of differing sizes across several regions. Their resources, and often level of competence,  tends to be in proportion to their size (ie population) which directly influences the amount of funding they have.

 

This council here were backed into a corner really on highway maintenance. The only way they were going to get the money to fix the roads was through a PFI contract, so that’s what they did.

 

You might criticise the way they funded highway maintenance before the Amey contract. I wasn’t involved in maintenance, but years ago my boss at the council used to tell me that the council used to get the maintenance funding from the government in what was known as a block grant, along with money for other functions. It wasn’t ring fenced, so they didn’t have to use it for the purpose given. I was told that for a number of years they used a proportion of the maintenance money to fund other stuff. I never saw the details, so can’t confirm if that was true, but the manager had no reason to lie.

 

Basically central government underfunds local government in a major way. That’s why many local authorities across the country are pretty much bankrupt. Local authorities are always having to prioritise spending, there’s never enough money.

 

Some think the private sector would do things better. Amey are private sector, are they better?