How Things Have Changed Over My Lifetime

[Hymie]

As a young child, I distinctly recall two separate occasions when during the summer months the road on which I lived being resurfaced. At a young age I was fascinated by the large vehicles in use. After stripping off the top of the old road surface, the process involved hot black tar being poured on the road out of the back of a lorry and almost immediately the small stones making up the top surface being spread over the tar.

The road in which I lived was around 300 metres in length and the whole process was completed in one day.

Fast forward more than 50 years; on my drive home from work last week, one of the roads I travel had workmen resurfacing the road, with traffic flow control via traffic lights. Today, the workmen are still there resurfacing the road more than a week on – and the stretch of road being resurfaced is probably no more than 50 metres; there’s progress for you.

[Old_Geezer]

Maybe they're doing a more thorough deep job of it ?
Well the rate money must be going somewhere, for sure they don't spend the road fund licence on it but passed legislation to excuse the stealing of it for other things.

[Elina]

Hymie, Oxford road Manchester. We've had weeks and weeks of diversions! Cycle lanes are being put in ( which I'm all for ) .. Think it's a great idea, but it's taking forever!

[ummmm]

H&S, form filling, unreliable deliveries, inspections etc etc....

[hc4361]

No such thing as road fund licence, OG. It's been called Vehicle Excise Duty and has paid for the roads since 1937

[ummmm]

I thought it was paid into the central pot.

[Elina]

Ummm has a point! Everything is quite strict with health & safety these days, more so than years ago.

[hc4361]

Arrrggghhhh - amendment


.....and has not paid for the roads since 1937

[ummmm]

And everything has to be signed off.

Believe me...these men want the job finished asap but they can't do so if the tools for the job haven't turned up. Some days my OH sits for hours waiting for things to arrive.

[bhg481]

Your first description is "tar spraying". It's a way of revitalising a road surface to cover up repairs etc. It's a bit like re-painting a door - after a few times you need to strip the paint right back to the wood and start again. The same is true with the road - when it's really worn you have to remove all the old tar and gravel and lay a completely new surface (a biggrf job which takes a lot longer).

[Old_Geezer]

Precisely. The government pulled an accounting trick in order to rename and steal the money: but the public knew what it was for and kept the true name. Now only apologists for that government keep on trying to convince folk it is ok. It is not.

[ummmm]

bhg - and when they strip back the road they sell the chippings for quite decent money...!

[hc4361]

Never mind, OG, at least this way everyone pays for the road maintenance whether they drive a motorised vehicle or not

[Gromit]

Two points:
1. Road surfaces are a lot more complex than they were. When I was young they would drop a centimetre of tarmac and cover the cobbles beneath. If you look now, the surface is layered and about 10cm thick.

2. Also there is a lot more traffic to work around. They tend to close one side of the road, and traffic light around the new work.

3. We seem to have a lot more road markings today as well. That in itself is a days work.