Are Irish Roads Unique?

mike65

I was listening to someone commenting on the crash of Rally driver Marcus Gronholm and he described the tarmac as being "uniquely" slippy. WTF?

Any engineers in the house?

Mike.

corktina

well it would be at stupid-km/h wouldnt it:).....cant see how it can be different to any other tarmac...and hardly a good excuse for a WRC driver crashing...

psicic

Well, Irish roads are amongst the few in the world that you need to grit in Summer because the tar melts and grit in Winter because of ice.

It's something to do with using a cheaper/more convenient mix/method.

Plus we have a delightful habit of leaving 'temporary' road surfaces down for more then 15 years. (Having ruts in a tarmac road isn't normal)

We also have 'dangerous' road markings that facilitate aquaplaning if you are on two wheels.

Plus we have no consistency on the surface.

Capt'n Midnight

yip I've heard that some of the county concils have in the past used very strange tarmac, and no it's not all the same. Back in Oz 30-40 years ago they would hold off part of the payment for road surfacing for 5 or 10 years to ensure the job was done properly. Is that done here yet ?

tarmac with porus "stones" drains better and has less noise, but maybe it wears faster ?

MathsManiac

There is more than one Irish road.
Therefore, Irish roads are not unique.;)

(Whether they're uniquely slippy...now that's a different question entirely...)

testicle

I saw the crash, one side of the road was wet at that corner.

gurramok

Are the roads unique here in that the drain covers are always on the road surface to be run over by traffic instead of being on the side of the road out of traffics harm?

Zoney

Gurramok:

Here in Limerick the recent road resurfacings (e.g. Dock Road, Dublin Road) have been serious affairs, involving footpath replacement, and indeed the realigning of all manholes etc. to be the same level as the road surface, and special surface around each manhole etc. to provide extra surface resilience. This was already provided a number of years back on one or two routes (e.g. Ballinacurra Road, Mulgrave St.) and has withstood the test.

Hopefully the start of an end to an era of rubbish bumpy roads in the city.

Actually I'm well impressed. The contractors were even out working on Halloween night. Big VMS signs and all the latest kit provided for the night-time diversions and so on. Just shows that times have changed at least in some respects here in Ireland.

mike65

Good job by the sounds of it.

What annoys me is that a second rate job must cost nearly as much to carry out as a quailty resurface. The cheaper option mentality is proberly the upshot of the way local authorities have to run thier budgeting.

Mike.

Niall1234

Government have to wake up and accept some responsibility on road deaths due to the state of our roads.

Some have appauling surfaces.