Catastrophic condition of roads in Cork city (pic heavy thread)

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 8:47pm #1

Okay, so this a long term issue but after this winter the situation is not acceptable anymore and the city council is not doing anything, or enough to improve the road network in Cork city.

In Cork city there are thousands and thousands of spots that need to be repaired and replaced. Kilometers and kilometers of roads need to be resurfaced. And if the council is repairing something it is done very poorly.

I find it very strange that the city council is rebuilding a roundabout at the airport instead of fixing and resurfacing the roads. They made the centre island of that roundabout bigger for some weird reason and the whole thing makes no sense whatsoever. These people are not competent to do their job and should be replaced by somebody who actually knows what they are doing.

I cycled a bit in the past few days and weeks and only then I realised that the roads are absolutely horrible! I found myslef braking quite often and I had to just change direction suddenly many times because the roads are that bad. Riding a motorbike must be a nightmare.

So here is a bit of documentation done by me. Pictures are few months old, some of the potholes have been "repaired" (if you can call it that) and generally the roads got worse and nothing is happening. So yeah, third world coutnry roads and we supposed to be ok with that? I don't think so.

Harbour View rd., outside Supervalu. There are 3 pedestrian crossing there with lights, one outside the library, one further up after the roundabout (it's the worst one from all 3) and one more further up. All of them are aboslutely horrible.

ped xing outside library

ped xing further up after the roundabout. Currently totally destroyed.

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 8:53pm

Cronin's field. From Lidl towards the park (Bakers rd.).

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 9:25pm

Shanakiel road. Are we still in Western Europe?

they went there to fix this like 3 times in last few months and it's still bad.

this is what it looks like today.

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 9:28pm

Shanakiel rd. X Sunday's well rd.

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 9:37pm

Lee rd. X Western rd. junction. One of the busiest junctions in Cork city and it looks like this.

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 9:38pm

Pictures taken today. Still a mess.

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 9:39pm

Going further, right after the bridge. Still looks more less the same today.

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 9:42pm

Bridge over the River Lee, heading towards Victoria X.

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 9:51pm

Victoria cross heading towards city centre... there are 2 manhole covers by the side of the road. Lower than the rest of the road. Way lower than they should be. And it seems they are clogged.

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 9:52pm

pedestrian crossing further up towards Dennehy's cross. Pothole filled, but still a mess.

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 10:13pm

Model Farm rd., from Dennehy's cross

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 10:16pm

Rendezvous pub->IDA business park

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 10:18pm

this is interesting ... it's a quite big bump on the road. I was driving behind a bus once and it went up and almost all the way down to the ground.

Somebody did a bad job that day apparently. Well...

nothing to see on pictures really, but it is there and it's not supposed to be.

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 10:21pm

outside IDA business park

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 10:25pm

Roundabout outside CIT

opposite side of the roundabout. Cork city council's engineering masterpiece. They even painted a line over that abomination.

Schorpio · 31-05-2018 10:40pm

You must be a mind reader Diabhalta! I have been meaning to get out and take some pictures of literally the exact same spots you've done. I was going to write a letter to the Council.

I totally agree, it's a complete disgrace. I dread to think of the years it adds to my poor car too. I think the shoddy 'repairs' are the bits which annoy me the most. It's one thing for the highway to fall into disrepair, it's another thing altogether for someone to have the audacity to walk away from some of those 'repair' jobs

ayux4rj6zql2ph · 31-05-2018 10:50pm

This post has been deleted.

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 10:55pm

Heading to town, Western rd. passing UCC

cracks in the road

Google maps:

there is about 8 manhole covers on this road and 5 of them are bad.

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 11:12pm

Greenville place, pass Mercy hospital in town. This pedestrian crossing.

The drop is too big. Badly built, has to be done again properly.

lawred2 · 31-05-2018 11:17pm

Christ is it ever dry down there?

Diabhalta · 31-05-2018 11:37pm

Strawberry hill, above the Gaol

last year in April they were doing something there and digging a big hole for I don't know what reason...

This is what it looked like after they were finished:

I emailed them and told them that this not ok. They can't do a job like this and expect us to drive over this. Seriously, what a mess.

So they went back and did this:

still sharp edges around

I emailed them again telling them that the repair work was waste of time and that spot is still a mess.

They went back and did it the way it should be:

Why they couldn't do it properly the first time? Where is the problem here? Maybe the people doing the job should do some course or even be replaced by somebody else?

It would be really nice if the people working there would be more effective and conscientious. The main problem here is that they are wasting our money. My money, your money and everybody else's. How are they even allowed to be so ineffective I don't know.

zilog_jones · 01-06-2018 2:10pm

Diabhalta wrote: »

I find it very strange that the city council is rebuilding a roundabout at the airport instead of fixing and resurfacing the roads.

That's the county council though. The city boundary has officially changed yet, has it? The work started months ago anyway.

Saying that, there are many areas of the south side suburbs (outside of the old boundary) with awful roads too.

NIMAN · 01-06-2018 2:24pm

These photos make for interesting viewing.

To be honest, many of the roads around Derry city are in that sort of state too, although we have a lack of a functioning government to blame it on.

Pops_20 · 01-06-2018 3:23pm

I travel the roads you pictured above several times a week (Western Road, Victoria Cross etc), and at this stage I've just had to learn where the potholes/cracks are and drive around them. The cracks on the western road are the worse as they span the width of the road and you really can't avoid them.

If the council saved the money the spent idiotic closing down of Patrick street then perhaps they could have done a half decent repair on the roads.

Kensei · 01-06-2018 3:37pm

Looks like the original contractors skipped adding condoms to the asphalt.

NIMAN · 01-06-2018 3:41pm

If Cork is anything like Derry, a lot of these patches are in place due to some other contractor coming along and digging up the road to lay something extra, like broadband, or gas or something.

There should be a requirements that if a part of the road is dug up, then the whole road to a certain amount of metres either side has to be properly resurfaced. That should be in the contract before they are allowed to break ground.

Most of these holes and damaged areas are from patches put in afterwards. If they had to do a full section of road as new, it would be less likely to end up in this awful state.

Diabhalta · 02-06-2018 1:40pm

Pops_20 wrote: »

and at this stage I've just had to learn where the potholes/cracks are and drive around them.

You see the thing is that you shouldn't remember where all the potholes/cracks are. The roads should be 100% smooth everywhere. It's very expensive to run a car in Ireland at the moment so in return the roads should be excellent.

In central Europe (countries like Poland, Czech rep., Slovakia, Hungary) the motor tax is included in the petrol price. The roads are very good over there. Occasionally you might end up driving over a pothole but it's a rare occurrence. The busiest roads in bigger and smaller cities are perfect.

So when I compare roads in Cork city to those roads over there it seems like we are in Asia, not in Western Europe.

I don't understand how somebody spends thousands of euros on a brand new car and then drives it in Cork. That's just absurd.

Winning in lottery let's say €100M there's no way I would live here. Driving a brand new Lamborghini or Ferrari in Cork? Pffff hahaha

lol that's just not possible. There are other places in Europe with much better infrastructure than Cork city.

Diabhalta · 02-06-2018 1:52pm

North Mall, outside Franciscan Well pub.

This road is decades old. It needs to be resurfaced. There is this big drop at the side of the road so if you can't drive around it you just have to drive over it. It's strange.

2018-06-02_13.47.12.jpg

Diabhalta · 02-06-2018 4:22pm

College rd.

Diabhalta · 02-06-2018 4:32pm

South Mall

shivermetimber · 02-06-2018 4:39pm

Daily motorcyclist and cyclist here in Dublin. The state of the roads in the city is absolutely abysmal the past few years. Seems almost on par with what you have down in Cork. The overall quality is nowhere near good enough and some of the craters are just like in your first picture, inches deep and near lethal on two wheels.

the dark phantom · 02-06-2018 4:39pm

Excellent photos, Well done..
Traffic lights are the only road infrastructure that Cork City Council care about, If a light gets damaged or fails it will be repaired immediately. Corks road surfaces are woeful when I'm driving I feel like I'm on a safari with my car bouncing along Corks potholes.

Diabhalta · 02-06-2018 4:41pm

Satisfied rd., Wilton

They just keep filling the potholes and it leads nowhere. They overfill them and now it's just big bumps on the road. RESURFACE!

jackrussel · 02-06-2018 4:41pm

they did those resurfacing patches on south douglas road road last year. pure ****ing disaster, up & down & up & down. outside centra on SDR is especially bad. the T junction into Nemo was in a terrible state but they seem to have fixed it somewhat. i must head out & get some pics for ye because they're in such bad condition around here.

Diabhalta · 02-06-2018 4:44pm

shivermetimber wrote: »

Daily motorcyclist and cyclist here in Dublin. The state of the roads in the city is absolutely abysmal the past few years. Seems almost on par with what you have down in Cork. The overall quality is nowhere near good enough and some of the craters are just like in your first picture, inches deep and near lethal on two wheels.

I know! I was cycling a bit recently as the weather got better and it is actually dangerous! Few times I lost balance. Imagine falling when a car is passing you. I have to constantly watch the road slaloming around all the potholes and bumps.

Diabhalta · 02-06-2018 4:46pm

I think now is the time to act! Let's go out there and take pictures and email them to the city council. Let's send them to Evening echo, Journal.ie etc. It's getting ridiculous!

shivermetimber · 02-06-2018 4:55pm

Diabhalta wrote: »

I know! I was cycling a bit recently as the weather got better and it is actually dangerous! Few times I lost balance. Imagine falling when a car is passing you. I have to constantly watch the road slaloming around all the potholes and bumps.

Cycling can be tricky alright but I've even burst a fork seal and rear tyre on the motorbike here in the past year!

ofcork · 02-06-2018 5:54pm

Even one lane of the grand parade is gone bad.

Diabhalta · 02-06-2018 6:31pm

ofcork wrote: »

Even one lane of the grand parade is gone bad.

Oh the contrast of the brand new shiny shopping centre and the shi**y road just outside of it. They keep repairing it and it leads nowhere. Ridiculous.

jackrussel · 02-06-2018 8:23pm

https://imgur.com/a/e8tzFKZ

just easier to share an imgur link. these pics are taken of Cross douglas road, douglas road, Rosebank road & south douglas road block route. its 1.7km according to google - didn't realize it was that much.

corcaigh1 · 03-06-2018 7:14pm

Diabhalta wrote: »

You see the thing is that you shouldn't remember where all the potholes/cracks are. The roads should be 100% smooth everywhere. It's very expensive to run a car in Ireland at the moment so in return the roads should be excellent.

In central Europe (countries like Poland, Czech rep., Slovakia, Hungary) the motor tax is included in the petrol price. The roads are very good over there. Occasionally you might end up driving over a pothole but it's a rare occurrence. The busiest roads in bigger and smaller cities are perfect.

So when I compare roads in Cork city to those roads over there it seems like we are in Asia, not in Western Europe.

I don't understand how somebody spends thousands of euros on a brand new car and then drives it in Cork. That's just absurd.

Winning in lottery let's say €100M there's no way I would live here. Driving a brand new Lamborghini or Ferrari in Cork? Pffff hahaha lol that's just not possible. There are other places in Europe with much better infrastructure than Cork city.

Really, is that true??

I was driving through that Lee rd. X Western rd. junction recently and the expletives that came out of my mouth was no ones business, shocking...

It is absolutely disgraceful the cut of the roads in Cork and Ireland of late. I drive my car on the roads every day and im always vexed over the state of the roads in cork city & suburbs and I drive an early noughties car so I can only imagine driving a new Audi or BMW having to navigate around the fu*king mess...

Im also a biker but have been off the bikes the last few years. My biker mates have been giving out stink, one of them bought a brand new sports bike this year and is giving serious thought to selling it again such is the state of the roads in the countryside so its not just the city roads in ****e, its sickening really and serious pressure should be put on the councils and government over it...

Tommyboy40 · 03-06-2018 10:33pm

I drive most of these roads daily. If a Garda was behind me he'd breathalyse me for swerving all over the road! That sickening crunch when you hit a pothole. I've just dropped €2,665 replacing a shock and a wheel bearing and pay €1850 tax. It seems that some roads are well looked after and others not at all

corcaigh1 · 04-06-2018 7:45am

Tommyboy40 wrote: »

I drive most of these roads daily. If a Garda was behind me he'd breathalyse me for swerving all over the road! That sickening crunch when you hit a pothole. I've just dropped €2,665 replacing a shock and a wheel bearing and pay €1850 tax. It seems that some roads are well looked after and others not at all

€2.665!! wtf are you driving a rolls royce phantom!!?

Diabhalta · 04-06-2018 9:57pm

Blarney street, outside Gala shop

Diabhalta · 04-06-2018 9:58pm

Heading to town on Blarney st., outside the school

Diabhalta · 04-06-2018 10:02pm

Diabhalta · 04-06-2018 10:03pm

one question. Why?

Diabhalta · 04-06-2018 10:04pm

Diabhalta · 04-06-2018 10:05pm

Diabhalta · 04-06-2018 10:07pm

No road markings?

Diabhalta · 04-06-2018 10:09pm

Cycling over this at 30kmh is certainly something extraordinary. Thanks Cork city council.

Catastrophic condition of roads in Cork city (pic heavy thread)

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