Why is snow so bad for potholes?

P

PawnSacrifice

Veteran
 South Oxfordshire
I knew, vaguely, that freezing cold weather caused potholes, just wasn't exactly sure how :?

Just noticed this on Twitter, (twitter.com/BBC_magazine) and found it interesting, so thought I'd share...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8453969.stm

:tumbleweed:
 
Good info :thumbsup: That's why the roads in Canada and Northern USA are crap compared to the UK and the Southern USA.
 
mcbeee said:
Good info :thumbsup: That's why the roads in Canada and Northern USA are crap compared to the UK and the Southern USA.
Click to expand...


have you driven on our roads? if yours are worse than ours you would need a 4x4! this recent weather has really deteriorated the road surface and ive noticed quite large chunks of tarmac coming loose even on main roads, as our government has bankrupted the country i suppose it will be years before the holes are fixed, oh well more ruined tyres and bent rims, happy days!
 
A guy in my office just buckled a wheel in one. The next day he passed a Police car at the same point with a broken wheel / tyre. Alfa want £424 for one alloy :o

Yes, that's £424 English pounds for one 17" alloy wheel! And I thought that CSL's were expensive.
 
Acerboo I have been driven (not driving myself) on a lot of UK roads when visiting frends and relatives although not in the last few years. Most of our roads excepting the main highways are gravel or oiled gravel & I do have a 4x4, two of them and have always had at least one for the last 30 years :lol: so you are absolutely correct, a 4x4 is a requirement. anyone who says otherwise is a poor misguided soul. :lol: and is probably stuck in a snowy ditch with a broken axle after hitting a pothole.... :wink:
 
they have gone from bad to worse over the last few years... and with the recent snow even worse - try being a cyclist :cry:
 
gannet said:
they have gone from bad to worse over the last few years... and with the recent snow even worse - try being a cyclist :cry:
Click to expand...
:lol: I was one, years ago I bought a brand new Coventry Eagle with nice Italian rims, rode it back 3 miles to my house and had to take both wheels off and repair them, bent all to sh*t. That was city streets, the sides of the hiways aren't bad if you dont get flats from all the crap that blows over to the edge. Just can't win. :rofl:
 
acerboo said:
have you driven on our roads? if yours are worse than ours you would need a 4x4! t
Click to expand...

He's right, their roads are worse :) On some highways even, doing more than 70 feels downright dangerous...road surface too dodgy.

I've done a fair bit of driving abroad now...our roads generally are good. You wanna see bad, try Turkmenistan or Kazakhstan, potholes 30ft across and 1 ft deep, which you discover while doing 45MPH. You have to cross onto the other side of the highway against oncoming traffic to make progress. Don't often have to do that on the M25...
 
mikedav said:
acerboo said:
have you driven on our roads? if yours are worse than ours you would need a 4x4! t
Click to expand...

He's right, their roads are worse :) On some highways even, doing more than 70 feels downright dangerous...road surface too dodgy.

I've done a fair bit of driving abroad now...our roads generally are good. You wanna see bad, try Turkmenistan or Kazakhstan, potholes 30ft across and 1 ft deep, which you discover while doing 45MPH. You have to cross onto the other side of the highway against oncoming traffic to make progress. Don't often have to do that on the M25...
Click to expand...


will have to see what we have when all the snow has gone, one of our local roads is subsiding already, back in the 70's we had the best roads in europe and the french the worst and we used to laugh at their cars for having such soft suspension, now the situation is reversed and our roads are a joke, but perhaps we should ask ourselves what our roads would be loke if instead of paying the eu millions of pounds every day our government spent some of it on our roads
 
Raify said:
A guy in my office just buckled a wheel in one. The next day he passed a Police car at the same point with a broken wheel / tyre. Alfa want £424 for one alloy :o

Yes, that's £424 English pounds for one 17" alloy wheel! And I thought that CSL's were expensive.
Click to expand...

Tell him to photograph the pothole and photograph the wheel... send the bill to the council and they will pay it, if not file a small claim and they will settle out of court.
 
sp3ctre said:
Raify said:
A guy in my office just buckled a wheel in one. The next day he passed a Police car at the same point with a broken wheel / tyre. Alfa want £424 for one alloy :o

Yes, that's £424 English pounds for one 17" alloy wheel! And I thought that CSL's were expensive.
Click to expand...

Tell him to photograph the pothole and photograph the wheel... send the bill to the council and they will pay it, if not file a small claim and they will settle out of court.
Click to expand...

Claim is underway, the woman he spoke to at the council had just finished giving a "pothole reference" to the Police.
 
im awaiting my claims form for a cracked windscreen on my Audi from going down a pothole, form is in the post....
shame it cracked the day before its MOT, autoglass said id have to wait 2 weeks as they were very busy !
 
Potholes are mostly due to freeze-thaw cycles. They're aggravated by damage due to heavy trucks; indeed, even in the US "Frost belt" about 80% of the wear and tear on highways is due to truck traffic, with the remainder due to weather..

Thanks.
 
I saw something a long time back that showed that while ice causes the initial breaks and starts the pothole the reason they grow so quickly is more to do with hydraulics. Think that the water settles in the newly formed crack/hole that by definition has a weakened surface. Each tyre hits water sitting in it and forces the loosened pieces out. Of course more water settles in the hole and the effect gets faster.

Trucks of course wear the road at least 100 times faster due to the weight per wheel :thumbsdown:
 
If its down to cold weather why are the roads in the alps silky smooth?

Its just crap roads hear that have been highlighted by cold weather.
 
Robb said:
If its down to cold weather why are the roads in the alps silky smooth?

Its just crap roads hear that have been highlighted by cold weather.
Click to expand...
Not really cold weather, but repeated freezing and thawing.. If the temps generally stay below freezing and don't cycle then it doesn't make the same mess - hence good roads in Alps.. :thumbsup:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom