WINTER MAINTENANCE
CHOOSE EFFECTIVE REPAIR NOT POT LUCK
Steve Webb, Commercial Director at GRITIT explains why patchwork re-fills are not the answer when it comes to problem potholes.
Potholes are big news, and none of it good. Local community groups and concerned individuals complain loudly about neglected roads and actively campaign for better maintenance; motorists are angry about damage to their vehicles, while cyclists report serious injury through accidents caused in collisions with potholes. Newspapers and social media are peppered with dramatic images of monster hollows in the road, and stories of public money wasted through ineffective repairs.
Last year some 2.2 million potholes were repaired across the UK at a cost of around £120 million. One vehicle repair company recently revealed the results of their survey, stating that a staggering £684 million had been paid out to fix damage caused to tyres, wheels, car suspension, exhausts and other body work.
Potholes are formed by water penetrating the asphalt surface of a road through cracks caused by traffic. Heavy rain, flooding, freezing conditions, repeated freeze-thaw and wet-dry cycles, create the perfect conditions for road defects and potholes to arise. When temperatures plunge, the water freezes, expands and causes the surface to rupture. When the ice melts, it leaves a void below the surface, which caves under the stress of vehicles to eventually form a pothole. When the cold spell is long, this gives the water the chance to penetrate right into the foundations of the road. A small crack can very rapidly develop into a more significant issue.
The larger a pothole becomes, the greater risk it represents and the more costly it becomes to repair. There are also the hidden costs that can be generated the longer a pothole
50 | TOMORROW’S FM
“LAST YEAR SOME 2.2 MILLION
POTHOLES WERE
REPAIRED ACROSS THE UK AT A COST OF AROUND £120 MILLION.”
goes unrepaired, such as the risk to health and safety for employees and customers. There is also a chance of a claim being made should an accident or damage occur as a result of a pothole, or an ice spot caused by water freezing inside it, and the subsequent loss of reputation. The RAC states that the value of successful claims by drivers for pothole damage was over £3 million with the number of claims continuing to rise.
It is the legal duty of the organisation that is responsible for the upkeep of any road or parking area to maintain it to a fit standard. Potholes are an increasing problem for UK business yet many businesses often put the maintenance of car parks and road routes low down the pecking order in property maintenance. Only carrying out repairs when absolutely necessary is a strategy that increases risk, and in the long term, is a more costly and less-efficient method when compared to a preventative, proactive approach.
An untreated or badly repaired pothole will continue to get bigger and deeper, causing more surface damage. As a result, the job and cost of repairing the initial pothole will become much more expensive.
A reactive, patch-up and quick-fix approach to repairing potholes, means that the repair can quickly break down and the pothole can soon reappear. Regularly surveying for pothole risk factors, providing adequate drainage structures, and planned, preventative maintenance are a more efficient and cost-effective way of dealing with the issue. Repairing potholes using infrared technology, which thermally fuses the joints, rather than a patching, semi- permanent, or conventional repair solution, is one method that can offer a cost-effective durable solution to extend the useful life of road surfaces and delay expensive and unnecessary resurfacing costs.
Catching the problem early and acting quickly with a quality repair is a longer term investment which, as FMs and property managers are asked to do more with less budget, can comprise a valuable part of the asset management strategy.
www.gritit.com
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