Road Resurfacing

Road markings? The road in front of my place was resurfaced years ago, not only has its road markings never been put back on, but the roads it joined had the markings scraped off for metres from the join and they remain gone. Traffic calming device?

Further to my point about William Hovell Drive, why they have resurfaced the bits that they have and why they haven’t resurfaced the intersection with Bindubi Street is beyond me! There are a couple of decent potholes there that need filling.

The seemingly random areas they have resurfaced on William Hovell Drive make the road so loud to drive on now it is difficult to maintain a conversation.

I don’t ride my bike down Belconnen Way (and nor would I want to!) but I have driven past many cyclists who have been forced on to the road-proper in order to avoid all of the loose stones and dodgy edges that haven’t been smoothed off.
An accident waiting to happen.

Most ACT roads are repaired etc by contract companies and not by council.
RoadsACT uses contractors to survey and chose the roads that need repairing and those contractors then work out what and where and when.
Those reports are offered up to tender and another contract company (who wins) gets the lists of roads and what has to be done.
Another company is contracted to do the lines which is why there is gaps between resealing and line marking. (they are not painted on anymore but melted on)

Some roads are silky smooth and not a mark on them but are still listed.
We have had full crews sit at the side of the road for a whole day waiting for someone to come and inspect it and tell us not to do the road.

The loose stones are bloody frustrating, but RoadsACT sets time limits that the workers are allowed on and off the road. Once that time is up the workers have to pack up and leave so I guess not all roads would be swept properly. Also with road use some stones break free.

Small areas and potholes are usually taken care of by council or whoever. But major road works are done by the contractors with set rules and limits.

Recent road re-surfacing has just made things worse, especially the shoulders which are marked as bike lanes.
Their heavy machinery causes dangerously large lumps and pot holes and the loose stones are never cleaned up.

“And have you tried falling off your bike onto the stuff?”

Why would you try falling off???

Worst of all, you can’t skate on the stuff. I had a beautiful, wide, smooth downhill carve right out my front door until halfway through last year. Now it’s unusable for anything except driving on. It has really had a negative impact on my quality of life.

And have you tried falling off your bike onto the stuff? It rips you up like the old stuff never did.

And when are they going to paint the bloody lines….
They sealed the road near me in Macgregor in December… Still no marking… Did they run out of paint or something.

Read through the link by Poptop above for a lengthy thread about the patheticness of this road sealing method (IMO). I note an ad in the paper the other day about a bunch of streets in Hackett and Watson about to also get the treatment. I pity you all – this is a shite road surface, and the govmint should be disgusted.

I’m still waiting for advice about the Yeti footprint of Childers St.

I have been advised by TAMS that them telling me someone would have a peek at it fulfilled their respond in 10 days requirement. I’m continuing to express an abiding interest, in writing, in the issue.

We’ll see.

It seems that RoadsACT don’t have any people who go out and inspect the roads and report potholes. If the public report a pot-hole on CanberraConnect’s website they are fixed quite quickly.

ChrisinTurner said :

I too have complained about the “chipseal” methods being used. In particular the inability of the contractors to clean up the loose stones, as they are required to do. In Reid it took over 6 months of complaints to get the loose stones removed. RoadsACT claim their chipseal lasts as long as proper bituminous hotmix surfaces, however in our local case the surface lasted less than a week. When you see chipseal done in Victoria or NSW they don’t seem to have the problems we have here.

They’re living in a dream world if they clam a spray/chip seal would last as long as a HMA surface. I’d love to see their proof of such a claim.

Also wondering why roads like Belconnen Way which wasn’t that bad to begin with, is being re-sealed, as well as Haydon Drive which seems to be needing constant roadwork (and not where it needs it at those horrendous traffic lights leading on to Belconnen Way outside Calvary!), but the bloody great potholes on Parkes Way as you head left from the Correnderk St roundabout are being ignored.

I too have complained about the “chipseal” methods being used. In particular the inability of the contractors to clean up the loose stones, as they are required to do. In Reid it took over 6 months of complaints to get the loose stones removed. RoadsACT claim their chipseal lasts as long as proper bituminous hotmix surfaces, however in our local case the surface lasted less than a week. When you see chipseal done in Victoria or NSW they don’t seem to have the problems we have here.

Canberra has some of the worst road re/surfacing i’ve ever come across. Just look at the GDE with its constantly changing surfaces, dodgy seams and joins and the potholes that appear after a bit of rain, despite the fact the road is barely a year old in some parts.

Crap – Sorry – Weedon Close is fine – Wignall Place is the one behind the Pot and that’s the one that was resurfaced.

Weedon Close (ie behind the Pot Belly) had it done late last year. Yes, it was quickly done. It looks crap.

The local council seems to have decided that spray sealing the roads is the way to go. It’s quick, easy and cheap but doesn’t last as long as a hot mix asphalt but is rougher and a lot worse for your tyres.

It is rather odd they are not using asphalt mix on high use roads, the current work on Belconnen Way, which must be one of the busier roads in the ACT is all spray mix. Heavy use and a good dump of rain will turn it into a 4wd only track.