Not all bad

.........and I reported one to Herts County Council using their online
service. I wasn't too hopeful when I noticed that potholes reported
by others in the same area were still outstanding from 2003 (I kid you
not) according to their system.

Following an email acknowledgement, I checked back on my "hole
progress" the following week and was amazed to see it listed as
completed. Mind you in my report, I had mentioned the words "could
cause a cyclist to crash or otherwise damage their bicycle", which may
have helped.

However, on passing the spot the following week, I was a bit
disapointed. Yes, they had filled in the worst of the series of
holes, but an area where the surface was eroded causing a bone-jarring
crash and rattle as you pass over it (and it stretches right across
that half of the carriageway, so you can't avoid it) was still as bad
as ever. Progress of a sort at least.

Leads to the question "When is a pothole not a pothole?". Does
anybody know if all councils have a minimum size of surface defect
that should be repaired, or whether it is left to the discretion of
the highway engineer who inspects it?

Quoted message said:

Leads to the question "When is a pothole not a pothole?".

I'd like to know the answer too. One of the roads I commute on was
obviously laid in sections. Now the gap between the sections has sunk
so for a mile, I get a bumping sensation every few yards. Not
dangerious but horrid on my end of-week saddle sore! Not sure if I can
report them as potholes or not.

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

I reported a pot hole to the Oxfordshire Highways agency and a nice
man called me back this morning to say it has already been reported
and will be fixed soon. I was expecting my report to dissapear into
thin air! Moral of the sotry, if you live in Oxfordshire, it is worth
reporting pot holes! If oly other agecies were as good!

I was going to report one that I noticed in Stafford last week so I
could try out the CTC web form, but I couldn't remember exactly where it
was. When I went that way again this week it had been fixed already.
:-)

Bronzie said:

Leads to the question "When is a pothole not a pothole?". Does
anybody know if all councils have a minimum size of surface defect
that should be repaired, or whether it is left to the discretion of
the highway engineer who inspects it?

With ironworks a rule of thumb is if it has sunk 10mm of more then
it's defective. Similarly if it's sticking up 10mm or more then it's
defective.
This second was explained to me at work while inspecting manholes
which were taking 15 minutes of chiselling and hammering to open, only
to take a similar amount of time to get them shut again. When asked
why, when they'll need to be opened again in a few weeks I was told
"As long as it's less than 10mm proud we can't be sued for causing a
trip hazard!"

Potholes are usually reported by Joe Public who spot something, or can
be recorded by the council staff who are passing by or may be doing
routine (but usually infrequent) inspections. In Leicestershire the
council have been heavily promoting their reporting service for such
problems and seeing as it's costing them money to repair all these
things I think it's either to (a) reduce the need for council staff to
go out an inspect roads or (b) give the government hard figures
showing that they need extra money to pay to repair all these problems
in their area.

The speed of response is often determined by responsibility - if it's
a pothole around ironwork that belongs to a utility company then the
council will usually give them a certain amount of time (often 28
days) to go and repair it. The more severe the problem the less time
that is given and can be as short as 2 hours to make it safe. Often
councils are not too fussed about small potholes so they may take ages
to be repaired.
You would also need to add onto that any time taken trying to find out
who is actually responsible (if the public report something, the
council generally don't seem to send someone out to check and will
just pass it on to someone else to sort out) as it's not always clear
and often bounces between several parties before one of them admits
it's theirs!

peter

Quoted message said:

I was going to report one that I noticed in Stafford last week so I
could try out the CTC web form, but I couldn't remember exactly where it
was.

Aha, that'd be:

http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/

Cheers
Bronzie