10 December 2011

Road resurfacing on Adelaide Avenue

| Bandraginus
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The recent road resurfacing on the northbound lane of Adelaide Avenue under the Carruthers Street bridge, I’m sure everybody would agree, sucks.

Apart from the normal Canberran resurfacing strategy of just laying down the rocks and waiting for the cars to bed it in, this time they’ve outdone themselves. The road surface is de-laminating across almost the entire length of the repairs.

However, I just noticed a couple of days ago that the workers are starting to lay down the white lines on top of the new surface. What, do they really think that it’s job done? Aren’t they going to fix the de-laminating problem?

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@Bandraginus,
Yes, I have even complained to Roads about this particular stretch, pinned it on a map, response that I got from them within 10 days? My original submitted complaint. LOL
I have personally witnessed how these clown contractors were spraying it , in a pouring rain, no wonder the surface lifted off within a week.

Not sure if it’s just my imagination, but it seems like the resurfacing that’s currently being done on Hindmarsh Drive and Canberra Ave is being done “properly” (i.e. no loose stones). Is this that hot mix thing that people keep talking about?

Tetranitrate11:38 pm 11 Dec 11

Something I noticed going home on the parkway this afternoon was that the worn/exposed sections are actually noticeably lower and cause water to pool, even on gentle inclines – not just the flat areas. It’s bloody treacherous in the wet.

Deref said :

But it’s cheap, and that’s the most important thing, right?

Its only cheap now.. later on it’ll be more expensive due to the increased frequency of repairs and many more ‘patch up’ jobs.

Deref said :

But it’s cheap, and that’s the most important thing, right?

Correct…cutting through all the crap, if you were sitting in the ACT roads fortnightly Finance committee meeting, that’s all the chair would be highlighting…’In light of recent budget constraints’..

But it’s cheap, and that’s the most important thing, right?

I take it you have properly lodged a complaint with municipal services, right? Or am I to assume you are simply venting in the hopes that somebody else will fix the problem for you?

Below is a link to the contact form for giving feedback on the ACT roads. With it’s handy embedded Google Maps applet, I can be certain that it could be filled out faster than a post on this fine website.
https://www.contact.act.gov.au/app/ask/c/2825%2C2838

I’m trying not to come off condescending here, but it seems a lot of effort has been put into a reporting system to try and fix these kinds of issues. Of course a system like this relies on the public actually making use of it. More often than not, however, some people would rather just whinge.

The parkway is the main problem.
Many patches or runways of exposed underlayer tar that provide no traction, you can actually hear your wheels skid over them. Which aint too bad if your going in a straight line or not breaking but would be a serious failure if someone hit one of these at the same time they were breaking or changing lanes. The wheel that wasnt on the skid path would break harder than the one that was and the car would drift to that side.

With this sort of resurfacing you get the tar bubbling up though the surface leaving the smooth road but this isnt the case. Just seems that the surface is highly unsuitable for the traffic, being pretty much everything from bikes and cars to trucks carrying tons of prefab building materials and heavy concrete trucks. Its just wearing away in large sections.
The parkway is over crowded and needs 3 lanes(southside), there is way too much acceleration and breaking causing endless wearing on the substandard surface. Having 3 lanes instead of 2 would spread the load out and is an investment for when the Monogolo is filled in. Sooner or later it will need doing. The only alternative is a rail link
The new section they did under the bridge on the parkway is just as bad or worse. It took them a week to wipe up the excess stones and as a result a friends windscreen was cracked by the time she got to work. (Any Idea if she can gov to pay for it).

The new section didnt fix any of the uneven road surface, there are still like mini jumps/valleys going down just before the speed camera. Which is also placed at the bottom of the hill. Also which not suprisingly is at the end of the area of road which they just replaced. I bet that they couldn’t possibly be connected events.

No doubt that the cost of fixing the road is much less than the fines that the speed camera makes. The problem also to everyone is that most people do 80 past the speed camera so everyone behind them also has to do 80 and you have very little momentum to riase the hill after the bridge.

Its nice to see that we spent soo much on having a blue glass bridge, that from far away looks like its still a underconstruction and close up underneath at the right time gives you a very trippy blue flashes of light.

Tetranitrate12:16 pm 10 Dec 11

Yep, similar story on the parkway.
In the area where they ‘fixed’ the road there, there are are long, widening ‘shiny’ areas across most of the lanes that were resurfaced, where the rocks they put down are more or less totally gone. There’s not a lot of traction and you really notice it when the wind is blowing.

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