Tarmac/asphalt/chippings

oscarBravo

I was surprised and annoyed last Friday driving home from Castlebar to find a couple of miles of the Knockmore-Ballina road covered in loose chippings. This road was recently (in the last year) widened and properly resurfaced. Now it's straight back to the good old days of a rough surface with polised tire tracks and little heaps of gravel on either side.

I rang my local councillor to ask wtf the story was. He said the council is running scared because of a lawsuit involving a car that skidded on a tarmac surface, and that they're covering tarmac with tar & chippings for safety.

This leaves me with some questions: first, when a road is properly resurfaced these days, don't they use asphalt rather than tarmac? Also, does anyone seriously believe that tar & chippings makes a remotely decent road surface?

Driving round a bend recently, I met a car coming the other way which was more than halfway onto my side of the road. I swung wide to avoid him, and wouldn't have had any difficulty if not for the bed of loose chippings on the side of the road. I had an interesting time recovering from the resulting skid. I'm not a fan of loose stones on a road surface at any time.

thejollyrodger

I had similar bad experiences with loose chippings on roads. A road beside me was recently tarred with very good tar. Then really cheap tar and chippings were put on top. It made a real mess of the road and all I could ask was WHY ??

Victor

There was a problem identified with, I think mastic asphalt and another product, where the weren't suitable for certain conditions.

saobh_ie

Presumably bikes are expected to travel tin the tracks of the cars then as they can neither brake or corner effectively on chippings.

It sounds like the road is in a dangerous condition. Even for cars rubber on tarmac would be far better than a loose surface. If the road originally had a decent surface the car shouldn't of been skidding, skidding is what happens when the driver makes a mistake.

mike65

Loose chippings are the work of third world minds. Truly hateful that a supposedly rich, first world country is still using such a method for top surfacing.

Mike.

Dman_15

Tar and chips are applied on top of asphalt/macadam to provide skid resistance.

Loose chippings are only present shortly after this process and there is usually good signage to indicate this. Tar and chip provides no structural strenght to the pavement, it provides a wearing course and extends the life of the road.

Hotblack Desiato

Dman_15 wrote:

Loose chippings are only present shortly after this process and there is usually good signage to indicate this.

My experience is entirely the opposite.

Two 'tracks' in between ridges of gravel does not make a safe or acceptable road surface. The gravel tends to accumulate in corners, just where you really don't want to have a loose surface. It stays there for a LONG time as the council don't bother to sweep it away.

As for the signage - it's usually either 'lots of signs but no chippings' or else 'chippings beginning mid-corner with no signage whatsoever'

Loose chippings are unacceptable, full stop.

Hoof Hearted

Dman_15 wrote:

Tar and chips are applied on top of asphalt/macadam to provide skid resistance.

Loose chippings are only present shortly after this process and there is usually good signage to indicate this. Tar and chip provides no structural strenght to the pavement, it provides a wearing course and extends the life of the road.

But don't you think there is still a crappy low quality feel while driving on it. Elsewhere in the world they would not stand for it

lostinsuperfunk

'lots of signs but no chippings'

Yeah, you begin to ignore those phantom chippings signs after a while. I think the councils just leave them there for the next time they have to resurface.