Engineering students in Italy have come up with an idea to warn road users about the increasing number of potholes appearing on European roads.
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Local authorities throughout Europe have neglected repairing their countries potholed roads, claiming they have no more funding to rectify the problem, so students Domenico Diego and Cristina Corradini have persuaded Italian road safety experts to adopt their 'Street Safe Initiative', which involves a layer of yellow asphalt a few centimetres beneath the road surface, so potholes become visible once the first layer of tarmac has eroded away.<o:p></o:p>
A test-program will start this year in Rho, Italy. The program represents a feasibility test for the idea - Diego plans to bring the product to multiple European markets.“We have compared the road surface to the human skin - when we are wounded, we start to bleed. So our idea is to put a layer of yellow asphalt beneath the tarmac, which appears and creates a high chromatic contrast that is visible from a distance. This way, the potholes are signaled as they appear and road users have enough time to react safely,” Milan Polytechnic student Diego said. In 10 years time our roads could look like something from 'The Wizard of Oz'. <o:p></o:p>
Well at least now they can do away with spending money on putting speed humps in the road, one road I go down every morning has got rumble strips and speed humps but you're aleady going slow cos of the pot holes leading up to them
The authorities on the uk will never use the road surface design as it would highlight just how bad the roads actually are. This would be a great one for the European community to bring into law. Any new road that is laid must be surfaced with this floured underlay and actually enforce a repair within two weeks of colour shown or fines will be levied against local councils to the sum of twice the cost of the actual repair..... Bet they would Benin the ball then....
Actually Germany has a good system. When a new surface is to be laid a notice is sent to all utility companies they get so long to dig up and lay/ repair anything that's needs doing then after it is laid they are banned from digging the road up for a set period of years. Most of their piping is laid in central utility trenches anyway... Not a bad system I reckon. uk on the other hand no sooner has anew top surface been laid then next day gas are at onenend digging the electricity are digging up the other .... Same old story no co-ordination between local council and utility companies.... Bloody useless
Dont know if this is across the uk but in birmingham if a pothole is reported thay have 28 days to repair it I must add they dont but nice to know you can put a claim in for damage to your car bike or cycle when you fall down the dam things jp
Ah well the problem is that most councils now have changed the size and depth of what is actually classed as a pot hole. So if this doesn't meet the new size criteria they do not have to repair it
Where I've been for a tootle out today, around the borders, a lot of the potholes are over 4" deep,.. I half expected kangaroos to be hoping down the road side!
NRASWA (New Roads and Street Works Act) rules stipulate in the UK that Statutory Undertakers (Utility suppliers, commonly referred to as Stats) are not allowed to dig up new surfaces for a period of twelve months.
However, this is a restriction placed on works deemed to be "substantial road works" and only applies for non-emergency Stats works. So, minor resurfacing works, say to a small length of road or junction can be immediately dug up afterwards by one of the Stats. Similarly if one of the Stats can demonstrate that required works are in effect emergency, then they may also get permission.
One issue in relation to this is that local authority NRASWA officers are usually overworked (and under paid) and in order for the above rule to apply they have to issue notice of the road works to all the Stats a minimum of 3 months ahead of those works starting. This often doesn't happen either because they themselves don't get 3 months notice or because one of the Stats gets missed etc.
However, all of the above is not the main issue in relation to Stats works and pot holes. The main issue is the form of reinstatement that is allowed.
In many European countries any trench that is formed within the highway for Stats work must be reinstated to an equivalent construction to the highway itself using new materials. This is more onerous than in the uk where "suitable" excavated materials can be reused. Which basically means the old stuff can be put back in and rolled.
The surface reinstatements in these countries are far stronger than allowed in the uk. Binder courses (the course below the final surface course) have to be laid as a separate course and to a width substantially greater than the trench itself. The surfacing course is then laid again as a separate course and itself much wider than the binder course, often to the full half width of carriageway.
However, things are changing. As indeed they should as local authorities are learning how much money is wasted fixing poor trench reinstatements which should have been formed correctly by the Statutory Undertaker responsible.
Firstly, most local authorities are now insisting on an overlap of the surfacing course, so this is wider than the trench. Some authorities are also insisting on a separate binder reinstatement as in Europe.
And secondly, more and more local authorities are now insisting on a 24 months maintenance period rather than the statutory 12 months. This is simply because they are realising that it usually within the second year that reinstatements are failing, after they have accepted responsibility.
Let's hope that it won't be too long before our roads are as nice as some of our European cousins.
Yup as I said we as a country are useless at liaisong with each other and in the case of public sector well come on you can be absolutely shit at your job and you won't be sacked or bollocked not at the senior levels we are talking about.... An A plus in bull*^it and arse covering ensures it is always another person or someone elses departments fault. The problem is no one can be bothered to sort out the problem before them...The Germans can and most other EU countries can do it but we can't there will be a H & S exec rule against working that hard lol
bring back steam rollers and make sure the road is properly compacted rather than rely on the road users to do it for you then maybe just maybe the roads will actually last!!!!!!!!!!!
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