Potholes Ruining Cars
The joys of having some sun again after months and months of rain and ice and snow. But now the ice has gone the damage that it has done can really be seen. Potholes, even several inches deep have appeared destroying the suspension of cars and vans as they drive over them ? one driving school company has now even begun including pothole avoidance as part of normal driving lessons.
Where have they come from? What has caused them?
The problem is that water gets into a small crack or small pothole, this water freezes and expands, forcing the tarmac apart further. The ice thaws, refills every crevice, refreezes and forces the tarmac apart further. Therefore the more thaws and freezes, the more chance you have of needing to drive around these obstacles of risk damaging your vehicle.
What are the councils doing to get this problem sorted?
The problem comes that we hardly ever notice a nice road (although I can think of one in Solihull that caught my eye!) the only time that we notice is when there is something wrong. Therefore it is tempting to think that the councils are not really doing anything much to help the problem. If there are potholes from last week which have now been filled in, we just do not notice, whereas when we hit any sort of hole, we curse the council straight away.
I would suspect that councils would be hesitant to try to fill in holes for drivers while there is still a substantial risk of freezing. Otherwise their good new work could be uprooted almost immediately. This would waste money and also cause locals to challenge the quality of the work that was done.
Is there a lasting solution?
Unfortunately there does not seem to be a lasting and affordable alternative to tar macadam roads. Whatever solution there could be would need to withstand potentially millions of drivers driving over it each and every year, not to mention the need to provide suitable traction for cars and any other type of vehicle that uses it. Also any harder wearing solution would by default cause additional wear and tear on tyres, even if it would help save a few suspension springs and tyres from the sudden bumps.
