Page 15 - 2022-08-01 RiDE

‘IT HAPPENED TO ME’

One of the many yards, so I pulled out, did the
riders affected by overtake, then as I pulled back
potholes is Neil into my lane, I heard this bang.
Adair, 52, from And that was it.
Dumfries and “They took me to Stranraer
Galloway, who came off his hospital and X-rayed and
Honda Fireblade while on a ride scanned me and found that I had
out with friends in June 2019. a cracked hip and a broken
Neil hit a pothole on the A77 in finger on my left hand, where
Scotland, which already has a the bars must’ve come right
reputation for potholes. round and smashed my fingers
Speaking about the incident, against the tank,” he continued.
he said: “I went to overtake a The hole was filled in shortly
couple of cars. I had plenty of after the incident.
vision for about 500 or 600

Potholes are all
motorists’ nemesis —
look ahead and avoid

responsibility to keep our years of solid repairs to get
roads safe, but flat funding our roads back in order. The remains of Neil’s
allocations to carriageway “If you look at the projected Blade after hitting a
pothole in an overtake
maintenance in real terms lifetime of a highway, you’d
— and rising costs — means really expect to be
they have to make difficult resurfacing that maybe once prevent potholes forming in network), to test whether it
choices about keeping their every 20 years. Local- the first place. could prolong the lifespan of
networks open and safe authority roads, we’re now “What’s needed is a the road and reduce the
today, versus improving looking at being resurfaced longer-term funding horizon frequency of potholes.
structural resilience for today once every 70 years,” to help authorities plan with “Safety is also our primary
and tomorrow.” Director of the Asphalt more confidence and drive concern and we set stringent
This has led to the reported Industry Alliance, greater efficiencies. Planned, standards for pothole repairs
backlog of carriageway Dr Ian Lancaster added. preventative maintenance on our roads,” Executive
repairs that increased by Tarmac’s National Technical has previously been Director for Operations,
almost a quarter on the Director, Brian Kent, also estimated to be 20 times Duncan Smith said.
previous year’s figure, to spoke to RiDE and said: more cost-effective per The organisation also
£12.64bn. That’s the “While extreme weather square metre than reactive claims almost £2 billion is
equivalent of £75.7 million for conditions can exacerbate work, such as patching and being spent on resurfacing
every local authority in pothole formation, a greater filling potholes.” between 2020 and 2025 and,
England and Wales and — focus on planned, since April 2015, over 7000
should the funding magically preventative maintenance to So what’s being miles have been worked on,
become available — it’s the UK’s road network is done about it? averaging 1200 per year.
estimated it would take nine needed and would Despite funding difficulties,
ALARM data also shows a So are things
pothole is filled the equivalent getting worse?
AFFECTED BY of every 19 seconds in It would seem so. Sadly

1/5 POTHOLES England and Wales. — much like the rest of
modern society — there isn’t
Elsewhere, National
A recent poll conducted by our insurance partners at MCN Compare Highways (formerly Highways enough money in the pot to
revealed one-in-five motorcyclists claim to have had an accident or England) began trialling the fix the problem properly and
sustained damage to their bike as a result of hitting a pothole. use of graphene on some if we want this blight on
Just over 1000 respondents were questioned, with surfaces across the 4300 bikers to come to an end,
of those answering also agreeing there were a lot motorway and major A-road authorities need to have a
of potholes in their area and almost half strongly
79% agreeing with the statement, too. miles it controls last year serious rethink on budget
(around 2% of the national prioritisation.

SEPTEMBER 2022 15