Surface dressing, how is it legal these days??

Del2005

As it's summer the local CoCo's are out doing the roads and as per usual they do the half baked surface dressing. My question is how does this still happen? If a farmer or builder drags some dirt or mud on the road they are responsible for any crashes, doesn't matter if they have signs up or not, yet the councils can cover several km of a road with loose chippings. It might be OK if they did it properly and rolled it after application then sweeping up but to my untrained eye it doesn't look like they do any rolling and it takes weeks for the excess to be cleared and if they are doing it correctly:eek:

Do they not have to complete a safety assessment before completing a job and if they do does no one think that the roads are used by vehicles with less than 4 wheels? On a motorbike or bicycle there is no safe speed to travel on a road which has several mm of loose chippings scattered all over it. It's even dangerous for pedestrians, even at 25km/h a stone can crack a windscreen, and there's no way any thing like a buggy or wheelchair can use the road.

fricatus

Yeah, I don't know how it can be acceptable! I remember thinking this in about 2009 before the M9 opened, and Kilkenny County Council were carrying out this type of surface dressing on the old N9 - a crap road, but a major one nevertheless. They were putting down a nice new rolled asphalt surface on the N10 around the same time - draw your own conclusions from that!

It seems as if the action of the cars (and countless juggernauts) on the road was supposed to finish the surface off. I had just got my current car and was appalled at the noise every time a stone flew up against the side of it - but however bad I had it, I was horrified at the idea that somebody could be cycling or motorbiking on such a surface.

It's the worst type of penny pinching by councils. Looking forward to see what others have to say in reply.

Jawgap

Plus it increases the potential for punctures if you're on a bike.

One of my worst spills from a bike came from descending a hill at not a particularly fast speed, she I hit a patch of recently dressed road" the back wheel stepped out and off I went. Luckily I only did my collarbone - and the only thing worse than loose chippings in your tyres is loose chippings in a heavily grazed arse and thigh being picked out by a nurse!

enricoh

I reckon autoglass sponsor the county councils to use it still - its the only logical explanation I can think of!

medoc

Offaly County Council (I presume) through some contractors have done approximately 400m of surface dressing on the N52 last week. It's not a national primary road but it's still a very busy secondary road. Plenty of loose clippings on the surface.