The Road Condition Warning thread

CramCycle · 02-07-2018 04:21PM

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Have that sand stuff on a corner coming down from Ballysmutten as well. Nearly came a cropper on a tight corner on Thursday. Your in the corner before you realise it is there and no traction at all.

Same here on Thursday, I was going around the corner (on the way up) and trying to speed up and nearly went straight through. I was surprised I didn't come down.

secman · 04-07-2018 12:07AM

That stretch on Lisheen that was relaid with lovely smooth tar is now a holy mess with a thick layer of loose gravel fecked on top of it. Absolute pits to cycle on, rough as fcuk, noisy with richoceting gravel pinging left right and centre. Not helpful either when cars fly by you throwing up gravel straight at you

Macy0161 · 04-07-2018 08:22AM

I'm not really sure what the answer is as an immediate solution though. The roads near us probably were more dangerous on a bike before they put the gravel on top of the melted tar to be honest.

rodneyTrotter. · 04-07-2018 06:23PM

Took a spin out to howth earlier . It’s a mess going up the hill near the Abbey Tavern . Temporary lights . Lads are digging up the road . Got stuck behind a stinking bin Lorry as I waited for the lights to change which made it all the worse .
Annoyingly there are temporary lights on the Sutton side too before the climb . So it hits you both ways .

uphillonly · 05-07-2018 02:49PM

Sally Gap was closed from Glencree last night. Helicopter dumping water from nearby lakes.

Miklos · 05-07-2018 03:55PM

uphillonly wrote: »

Sally Gap was closed from Glencree last night. Helicopter dumping water from nearby lakes.

Still closed today, I ventured up a bit past the roadblock it was basically impassable due to the smoke. Plenty of gorse still burning away.

1bryan · 06-07-2018 07:50AM

Weepsie wrote: »

We should all go up and empty our bidons to do our bit for nature. The pictures look bad, but they don't reveal the possible destruction to wildlife in the area other than vegetation. It will be a surreal view compared to what we're used to when it's back open I imagine.

I live close to the Dublin mountains and I always remember controlled gorse burning being a thing. It usually took place at night time so you'd see the hills alight for miles around.

My only point here is, even though it was controlled (whereas the one burning at the moment is clearly out of hand), surely the same levels of destruction to nature/wildlife/vegetation would have occurred.

Sickening to think one of these fires was started deliberately, while another was started by mindless idiots who left a disposable barbecue after them.

magicbastarder · 06-07-2018 08:02AM

there's not a huge amount of wildlife up there. partly due to the 'controlled' burning.

Macy0161 · 06-07-2018 08:32AM

1bryan wrote: »

My only point here is, even though it was controlled (whereas the one burning at the moment is clearly out of hand), surely the same levels of destruction to nature/wildlife/vegetation would have occurred.

Well I live in the mountains. The older farmers in my local argue that the controlled burning kept the height of the gorse/ vegetation down, so when in circumstances like now, there wouldn't be the volume of fuel for the fire, and more easily brought back under control.

I wouldn't have thought there's loads more wildlife now compared to when it was "managed", is there? I would think ground birds are more rare now than in the past, but I've no idea whether that's anything to do with burning or lack of burning, or a false correlation. I would guess everything on the ground is being overrun by all the feckin (non-native) sika deer!

06-07-2018 09:44AM

I recall last time they had bad fires in the US they interviewed an official on BBC news I think it was who basically said the reason the fires were so bad was because they had gotten so good at preventing them with firelines and what not that fires that would occur naturally weren't happening and that forests vegetation that would have been thinned by natural fires had got so dense that it was impossible to control a fire in when it broke out.

magicbastarder · 06-07-2018 09:55AM

if it's a topic you're interested in, i can lend you a copy of this:

https://www.amazon.com/Year-Fires-Story-Great-1910/dp/0878425446
it's a little dry at times.

magicbastarder · 06-07-2018 09:59AM

anyway, they should be planting deciduous forests (where possibe) if the gorse is such an issue. deciduous forests are far less likely to burn, and are good for biodiversity.

Macy0161 · 06-07-2018 10:23AM

magicbastarder wrote: »

anyway, they should be planting deciduous forests (where possibe) if the gorse is such an issue. deciduous forests are far less likely to burn, and are good for biodiversity.

Very hard to get deciduous trees up out of the ground because of the amount of deer. You basically need 8 foot fences around them. The guards only work so far, and they'll strip the bark once they're too big.

magicbastarder · 06-07-2018 10:35AM

best to reintroduce wolves so.

Macy0161 · 06-07-2018 10:55AM

Or a proper cull, of what is a non-native species!

siochain · 06-07-2018 01:39PM

hows the roads up there today ?

CramCycle · 06-07-2018 02:13PM

1bryan wrote: »

I live close to the Dublin mountains and I always remember controlled gorse burning being a thing. It usually took place at night time so you'd see the hills alight for miles around.

My only point here is, even though it was controlled (whereas the one burning at the moment is clearly out of hand), surely the same levels of destruction to nature/wildlife/vegetation would have occurred.

Sickening to think one of these fires was started deliberately, while another was started by mindless idiots who left a disposable barbecue after them.

When you say controlled, do you mean the farmers doing the burning. I remember that but it was never legal or allowed. Or did the fire brigade do it to remove bridging points?

1bryan · 06-07-2018 02:30PM

CramCycle wrote: »

When you say controlled, do you mean the farmers doing the burning. I remember that but it was never legal or allowed. Or did the fire brigade do it to remove bridging points?

good question, and I don't know who did it. I just remember it happening and it being reported as being 'controlled gorse burning'. One year (maybe 5 years back) I recall the road being closed from glencree to sally gap for such burning, so just always assumed it was conservationists, or the council, that were doing it.

I do remember gorse burning by farmers being a massive issue around Mount Leinster a few years ago. I thought that was something to do with EU grants though. Something about land with gorse on it not qualifying them for additional funds (can't recall the details). That tended to happen around March/April though, if memory serves.

Plastik · 06-07-2018 10:49PM

Was anyone up that direction this afternoon. Still closed? Between where?

Highway_To_Hell · 07-07-2018 06:04PM

Plastik wrote: »

Was anyone up that direction this afternoon. Still closed? Between where?

Was up around Sally Gap today. road is still blocked to cars, we went through and it is still passable and no smoke. a lot less activity than last week when there was a helicopter doing water drops and Coillte staff around. no sign of any working on the fires today. plenty of cyclists.

Road blocks are at the Glencree/Chrone junction and at Sally Gap cross roads.

magicbastarder · 07-07-2018 06:08PM

drove home from athlone today, on the old galway road. if anyone is cycling it (think i spotted some audaxers?), beware of the turf - everyone in the midlands seems to be driving round with turf in trailers, and it's not an exaggeration to say that if we stopped and picked up every sod which had fallen out onto the road, we'd have a couple of sacks.

magicbastarder · 08-07-2018 01:55PM

not so much a warning, more an observation - the warm weather has show how much of a false economy it is to do the cheap road resurfacing where they tar the road and top dress it with loose chips. the oldtown to naul road (mainly the half near oldtown) was done this way a year or two ago, and it's already looking ****. in a lot of places, the gravel has been pushed all the way through the tar so you have a glassy tarry surface, and in other sections the top layer is delaminating.

ford2600 · 08-07-2018 03:25PM

magicbastarder wrote: »

not so much a warning, more an observation - the warm weather has show how much of a false economy it is to do the cheap road resurfacing where they tar the road and top dress it with loose chips. the oldtown to naul road (mainly the half near oldtown) was done this way a year or two ago, and it's already looking ****. in a lot of places, the gravel has been pushed all the way through the tar so you have a glassy tarry surface, and in other sections the top layer is delaminating.

It s perfectly fine way to extend the lifespan of a road. The problem is with the quality of materials and workmanship.

Fatting up is typically the result of a substandard binder and too much of it and/or inadequate aggregate. The cheapest tender typically gets the contract. Peanuts and monkeys etc etc

Some light reading
https://books.google.ie/books/about/The_Shell_Bitumen_Handbook.html?id=bA1tIkRJL8kC&redir_esc=y

On topic, where roads have fatted up road surfaces will have very poor grip/friction available once the rain comes. Rain after a prolonged period will be an issue on most roads as exhaust particles and tyre particles have built up in absence of our regular rain, but fatting up leaves you travelling on a bitumen surface.

The false economy will be Local Authorities paying insurance claims which result from the cheapest cowboy getting the job and is now long gone.

eeeee · 14-07-2018 04:48PM

The Sally gap open for cars yet?

Miklos · 14-07-2018 04:54PM

nee wrote: »

The Sally gap open for cars yet?

It is yeah.

Bray Head is on fire at the minute, I was only at the outskirts by the Shankill end of Bray earlier and the smoke was fairly thick, can’t imagine it would be much craic to cycle through.

Wishbone Ash · 14-07-2018 07:45PM

nee wrote: »

The Sally gap open for cars yet?

Yes. I was up there on the bike this afternoon and there were loads of motors around.

(Lots of small bits of smouldering smoke around too).

loyatemu · 15-07-2018 12:17AM

Miklos wrote: »

It is yeah.

Bray Head is on fire at the minute, I was only at the outskirts by the Shankill end of Bray earlier and the smoke was fairly thick, can’t imagine it would be much craic to cycle through.

Cycled over Windgates yesterday. Fortunately the smoke was blowing to the northeast, it was actually worse at the northern end of Bray where the smoke was billowing about a bit, no smoke on the road beside the fires.

Still burning fiercely today, good view from Greystones harbour of the helicopter dropping water on it, but again the smoke was blowing the other way.

magicbastarder · 15-07-2018 08:34AM

it's raining! a little bit in dublin, anyway, seems much heavier in the west and north. watch out for greasy roads.

the rainfall radar section on met.ie seems down, maybe it's overloaded with people trying to perve on it.

magicbastarder · 15-07-2018 11:59AM

And I had my nearest off in years this morning. Ashbourne-Swords road, chugging along at about 37km/h, hit a section where some patchwork repairs had been done to the road. The repairs had sunk a bit, and my front wheel dropped sideways into it and bounced along it like along a very low kerb for a couple of times. Am surprised I managed to stay upright.

bazermc · 15-07-2018 01:32PM

Absolutely manky dirty oily roads around Dublin today. Be careful folks.

The Road Condition Warning thread

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