Road re-surfacing.

smashey

Donegal Co. Council recently re-surfaced a local road outside Lifford (known locally as Cavan Hill), and it is a great job. Except for the fact that they didn't bother their ar$es raising manholes or gulleys.
WTF?
Their is one gulley in particular and it is now so low, that it is worse than any pothole. Why can't they do the bloody job right in the first place instead of making more work for themselves later on.

Feel free to join my rant.

nanook

I remember i hit a pot hole once and blew the tyre and cracked the cv joint.

It was over the holday period so you were not going to get the council out and fill it in straight away, as they usually do when an accident occurs, but I had time to take photo's and evidence of the pot hole.
Sent the bill for repair to the engineers office and explained what had happened and before the close of day the potholes were filled in.

Never got the money or anything but that was not the point, the point is that if you show them that they are liable for damage, they will repair straight away

muffler

Nothing new about the council making a balls of the job. Im surprised they even know what a gully is as they never fit any themselves.

Biggest problem with all these roads that are full of craters is the lack of proper drainage. I have seen umpteen different roads being resurfaced over the last few years but never once did I see a storm drain being laid.

Maybe we could get the roads engineers transferred to one of the councils in Norn' Ireland where they know their stuff about both roads and drainage.

byte

nanook wrote:

Never got the money or anything but that was not the point, the point is that if you show them that they are liable for damage, they will repair straight away

But at the same time, you shouldn't have to suffer a damaged car due to the incompetence of the CC.

nanook

byte wrote:

But at the same time, you shouldn't have to suffer a damaged car due to the incompetence of the CC.

i agree, but this is a no win situation, you will never beat the council but you can wake them up. In my situation the even happened over a christmas on a tuesday evening, I notified the council thursday morning and even though the engineer was on vacation the pot hole was filled either thursday evening or friday morning. I didnt even have the car back on the road

smashey

muffler wrote:

Nothing new about the council making a balls of the job. Im surprised they even know what a gully is as they never fit any themselves.

Biggest problem with all these roads that are full of craters is the lack of proper drainage. I have seen umpteen different roads being resurfaced over the last few years but never once did I see a storm drain being laid.

Maybe we could get the roads engineers transferred to one of the councils in Norn' Ireland where they know their stuff about both roads and drainage.

Good point Muffler. This reminds me of when the last by-pass in Strabane opened. It was around the same time as the Neil T. Blaney road opened in Letterkenny. The difference was unreal. The Strabane road had a full drainage system while to this day the road in Letterkenny looks like they just got fed up and left it.

donegalman1

Hardly surprising. Is it not time roadbuilding and resurfacing was put out to tender with private companies doing the work as is the case in major roads. Then private companies would have to do the job properly while laws to allow negligence on councils part would be unneccessary.

Deadlines would also be met and companies could be followed up to complete properly.

byte

Yeah, true. Most work I see done by private companies seems to be well done. However, what does worry me, is that when a private company is taken in to do work, it's sometimes tendered out to NI contractors, who presumably cheaper.

donegalman1

Perghaps thats true but it seems most major work here is either by N.I. companies or the Ballyshannon company. I see McGrane lorries nationwide coming from Inver though. It seems most major works on National Road projects either end up with foreign companies or Irish ones employing foreign labour. This is the economy in Ireland all over, though it does seem to produce results.

I've often wondered whether the fact the Northern companies do Northern roads during summer and ours winter is to do with price and whether this affects the results of our road surfaces in quality.

sesswhat

muffler wrote:

Nothing new about the council making a balls of the job.

You can't be talking about the same people who painted 'STOP TO PREPARE' and 'AHEAD JUNCTION SLOW' at every crossroads on the back road from Clady to Ballybofey;

or that coned off the middle of the road between Reid's petrol station and Nena Models in Stranorlar, leaving the old yellow line in place so traffic coming from Letterkenny were directed across the road into oncoming traffic;

or that let all newly tarred roads settle in for a few years before they get around to doing any road markings;

or wait until the alternative routes are closed (Iron Bridge) before deciding to dig up Twin Towns main Street, and just before Christmas at that.

I know it can't be the same people because they will fight you tooth and nail to make sure you have sufficient line of sight at the entrance to your house 'in the interests of safety'.

nanook

so its approval all round for the county council workers here then

sesswhat

They do have great maps on their planning website .... and aerial photographs so you can see their incompetence from space!

smashey

sesswhat wrote:

They do have great maps on their planning website .... and aerial photographs so you can see their incompetence from space!

You're off topic there. Credit given where credit is due, that mapping system is excellent for planning purposes.

sesswhat

smashey wrote:

You're off topic there.

After my previous rant I just didn't want to tar all the council workers with the same brush!

sesswhat

sesswhat wrote:

...coned off the middle of the road between Reid's petrol station and Nena Models in Stranorlar, leaving the old yellow line in place so traffic coming from Letterkenny were directed across the road into oncoming traffic;

or that let all newly tarred roads settle in for a few years before they get around to doing any road markings

I'm quoting my original post (no. 10 above) as there was quite a serious accident at this same location today when someone struck the new traffic island. I can't say whose fault it was but there are still no road markings leading up to either side of the traffic island on one of the busiest roads in the county.

Is it just a matter of money? Don't start the bloody job if you can't afford to finish it.

muffler

sesswhat wrote:

I'm quoting my original post (no. 10 above) as there was quite a serious accident at this same location today when someone struck the new traffic island. I can't say whose fault it was but there are still no road markings leading up to either side of the traffic island on one of the busiest roads in the county.

Is it just a matter of money? Don't start the bloody job if you can't afford to finish it.

The word coming through the grapevine is that area will soon be resurfaced. I suppose if they went and paid for road markings now and then resurfaced a few weeks later they would be ridiculed again.

In saying that there is no excuse when safety is an issue. Wait and watch all the little back roads that will be resurfaced over the next couple of weeks :rolleyes:

brianthebard

Hate it when roads are resurfaced every few years and become higher and higher, but are still narrow, so if you pulled in to let someone pass your car would be on its side.

muffler

brianthebard wrote:

your car would be on its side.

Thats what happens when you hit some of the potholes here

byte

sesswhat wrote:

I'm quoting my original post (no. 10 above) as there was quite a serious accident at this same location today when someone struck the new traffic island. I can't say whose fault it was but there are still no road markings leading up to either side of the traffic island on one of the busiest roads in the county.

Is it just a matter of money? Don't start the bloody job if you can't afford to finish it.

Have to agree, it's about time somebody did something with that short stretch of road. It is rather dangerous I think.