Minister for Potholes and Cycle Paths

The roundabout, as small as it is, at the junction of McCaughey and Masson Streets in Turner is in great need of ironing out. Not so much potholes, just undulations similar to, although not as severe, the ones just repaired near the GPO in recent days.

I get so tired of this same old argument coming out every time Canberra roads are resealed. People seem to have an opinion about how it should be done, even though nobody is a a road engineer.

By all accounts the cyclelanes are a very small component of the roads budget.

Resealing a road is only done to resurface the pavement and thus improve the friction needed between tyres and the road surface. The ‘hotmix’ or heavy patching Canberra road users see (like Hindmarsh Dr and recently Long Gully Road) is repairing the full pavement and will likely have a bitumen spray and stone aggregate treatment to follow. The resealing/resurfacing of our roads should be part of an ongoing schedule based on the amount of use a particular road receives. If Roads ACT suddenly needs $5mill for reseals, thats a $5mill error in planning.

Now that Al Gore has frightened El Nino away and we’re starting to get some serious rain, watch for the potholes developing due to shoddy patchwork that they could get away with in the drought.

Lets hope they do a better job than that patch up job that was done a few months back on Hindmarsh Drive when your heading downhill just before the intersection with Mugga Lane.

Felix there are two issues. One if a road is already potholed then the tar spray and blue metal is useless. As for sealing roads that don’t seem to need it, how do you know they don’t need it?

I agree that it would be nice if the roads could be resurfaced like in Sydney, but we have to face facts that our roads generaly don’t get as damaged as Sydney. The become porus, the easiest and cheapest solution is to spray the tar on to seal it and throw the blue metal on for a surface.

bd84 – agreed. That section near Lady Denman has been like that for _ages_. I can’t believe nobody has come unstuck there yet during wet conditions.

The government will give it a spray of tar and pebbles, what a stupid question lol.. as if they would actually spend money to fix it properly, I mean that’s all they did for half of the new gungahlin drive extension..

Funny there’s no mention of the Tuggeranong Parkway on the list, which needs resurfacing from start to finish except the 200m northbound near hindmarsh, the southbound lanes near lady deadman drive is just plain dangerous, it’s like driving on ice. Hopefully it will be one of the roads left off the “including” list.

They always seem to reseal roads that don’t need it and leave roads that are bumpy and have been potholed for years. And they should use the proper hotmix and not the cheaparse blue metal with a dash of bitumen on top in a pathetic (unsuccessful) attempt at sealing the stones.

Good example was the Monaro Hwy heading from Duntroon towards Fyshwick near the Molongolo River waterski area. They patched parts of the road there even though there appeared to be nothing wrong with it but the road is like a roller coaster there and they should of ripped up the bitumen and totally redone it smoother.

I was driving down belconnen way the other day. There was a cycle path about 2m away as well as a cycle lane as part of the road, and the bike rider was still riding in the car lane.