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Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

theguardian.com

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Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#41

Post by haunter »

fhd2 wrote: post #32
haunter wrote: post #19

I live in Hungary and the roads here are incredibly bad with millions of potholes. Hot summers and cold winters doesn’t help either. But what I noticed that if the asphalt has higer mixture of stones (usually they use basalt here) then there are virtually almost no potholes. It’s more loud as the surface is more rough but by my layman experience it’s much more durable. Pure asphalt roads with very little stone conten…

I did a road trip through Europe a few years back, and when we passed from Romania (coming from Cluj) to Hungary, the road immediately got _comically_ bad. As we got closer to Budapest things seemed to improve, but wow, I vividly remember this. I'd be curious to learn whether it's a lack of maintenance (Hungary generally seemed well maintained except for the roads though) or something else.

Lack of maintenance and it’s a generally corrupt country. Stealing is not a crime (especially from public funds) but an act of bravery. There are no consequences.

My theory that construction companies here work as a cartel. For them making good roads is not a business > less projects later. So keeping up the status quo with low quality is a better business, there is always something to fix and repair and also more opportunity to steal public money.

Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#42

Post by lofaszvanitt »

haunter wrote: post #19

I live in Hungary and the roads here are incredibly bad with millions of potholes. Hot summers and cold winters doesn’t help either. But what I noticed that if the asphalt has higer mixture of stones (usually they use basalt here) then there are virtually almost no potholes. It’s more loud as the surface is more rough but by my layman experience it’s much more durable. Pure asphalt roads with very little stone conten…

Or that they steal the important ingredients from the mixture and the company who does the quality assurance is also on the "payroll".

Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#43

Post by PeterStuer »

The easiert way to extend road surface life is to go zero tolerance and place extreme penalties on weight limit exceeding trucks.

This will ofc not eliminate resurfacing need, but the impact of excessive load is a very substantial part of road wear.

Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#44

Post by PeterStuer »

UberFly wrote: post #39

"To make the self-healing bitumen, the researchers mixed in tiny porous plant spores soaked in recycled oils. When the road surface is compressed by passing traffic, it squeezes the spores, which release their oil into any nearby cracks. The oils soften the bitumen enough for it to flow and seal the cracks." Are we really buying this?

It's a lab experiment on a tiny crack. There is as far as the article goes zero real world data.

Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#45

Post by OJFord »

chgs wrote: post #37
noja wrote: post #2

That’s good news, but why are the roads in the UK so bad to start with? Is it correct to say that roads are funded from a tax on fuel sales?

Pot jokes are typically on local roads. These are funded from councils. Council income is from a property tax, “council tax” and “business rates”. Councils have many spending commitments, my local council about 80% of income goes on “Adult Social Care”, which is basically paying for carers to go to wealthy old people and look after them because while they own a million pound house it would be unfair to expect them to…

> “Adult Social Care”, which is basically paying for carers to go to wealthy old people and look after them because while they own a million pound house it would be unfair to expect them to pay for their own care.

That's BS. Adult social care is comically underfunded, needs-assessed, and not to a standard or timeliness that you would choose if you could afford private.

Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#46

Post by OJFord »

Reason077 wrote: post #27
walthamstow wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Council grants from central govt cut ~40% during austerity too. Pothole fixing and road resurfacing are such an easy choice to cut from budgets because the effect is indirect and isn't immediately seen. People would notice very quickly if their bins weren't being collected.

> ”People would notice very quickly if their bins weren't being collected.” This was a constant problem at my London council. They collected our rubbish bin reliably, but never our council-supplied recycling bin. Eventually we found out that the rules had changed and recycling had to be put in specially marked clear plastic bags, but the bags were almost impossible to get. You literally had to go to the local library…

My wife was in a flat in Wandsworth for a bit, through which I learnt they're not actually required to do recycling collection. Landlord provided a communal refuse bin, but no recycling. Wandsworth won't collect bags on street from residents above businesses (but those businesses can put bags on street twice a week, that's no problem).

I think they suggested a couple of recycling centres it could be taken to, but who really is doing that, especially without a car.

Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#47

Post by jmb99 »

PeterStuer wrote: post #34
alexey-salmin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's the opposite, this kind of asphalt has very rough surface.

But not the right kind of grit rough. The 'stoney' rough asphalts can be extremely slippery when wet, and even dry they then to extend breaking distance. My guess is they also cause more rolling tire wear and slightly more fuel consuption.

I’m not sure how you could have worse grip when braking (caused by lower friction) while simultaneously increase tire wear (caused by higher friction), unless I’m misunderstanding something.

Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#48

Post by bell-cot »

UberFly wrote: post #39

"To make the self-healing bitumen, the researchers mixed in tiny porous plant spores soaked in recycled oils. When the road surface is compressed by passing traffic, it squeezes the spores, which release their oil into any nearby cracks. The oils soften the bitumen enough for it to flow and seal the cracks." Are we really buying this?

> Are we really buying this?

No. I'd figure that most HNer's know The Guardian has a strong "optimistic fluff" bias, and some of us feel like venting our spleens about potholes and poorly-maintained roads.

Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#49

Post by bell-cot »

PeterStuer wrote: post #43

The easiert way to extend road surface life is to go zero tolerance and place extreme penalties on weight limit exceeding trucks. This will ofc not eliminate resurfacing need, but the impact of excessive load is a very substantial part of road wear.

True. But when a tiny minority (folks with heavy trucks) have an intense interest in getting away with something, while the vast majority can't be bothered to pay any attention to the issue...

Re: Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

#50

Post by rich_sasha »

Reason077 wrote: post #27
walthamstow wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Council grants from central govt cut ~40% during austerity too. Pothole fixing and road resurfacing are such an easy choice to cut from budgets because the effect is indirect and isn't immediately seen. People would notice very quickly if their bins weren't being collected.

> ”People would notice very quickly if their bins weren't being collected.” This was a constant problem at my London council. They collected our rubbish bin reliably, but never our council-supplied recycling bin. Eventually we found out that the rules had changed and recycling had to be put in specially marked clear plastic bags, but the bags were almost impossible to get. You literally had to go to the local library…

In a similar vein: it turns out councils are only liable for pothole-related damage if they know about the pothole - i.e. if it was reported or they found it themselves. Maybe fair enough.

But the county of Gloucestershire fixed the issue by ceasing all pothole inspections. If they don't know about them, they aren't liable.

On this basis, they reject 97% of all claims.

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