It’s chippings with everything!
I AM dismayed at the continued use of stone chippings as a means of re-dressing road surfaces within this county. If I am honest I was under the impression that this cheap option had all but disappeared. I encountered just such a nightmare this week whe
I AM dismayed at the continued use of stone chippings as a means of re-dressing road surfaces within this county.
If I am honest I was under the impression that this cheap option had all but disappeared.
I encountered just such a nightmare this week when travelling from St Neots to St Ives using the B1040.
Having committed to the route and being blocked by other cars behind, I managed no more than 15mph, as a thunderous din of stones clattered under the car.
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As other less considerate motorists passed, I enjoyed stones bouncing on the bonnet, windscreen and roof.
On return home, I had to spend my entire afternoon removing them from the bodywork.
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Most of the carriageway surface was subsequently found embedded into the tyres and cubby-holes beneath the car.
Can anyone please tell me why the council decides to use such an awful resurfacing product, knowing that it produces such pain to the motorist, at least until most of the surfacing chippings have been lifted back off?
The result of this lifting is that cars are continually peppered with sharp stone. As safe as I want our roads to be, this type of resurfacing is totally unacceptable but, if the council must persist in this practice, can they give more advanced warning at the roadside of such work, so that a motorist has option to detour around the mess they leave behind?
ANDREW PECKHAM, Ferrars Avenue, Eynesbury
* Editor's note - Richard Kingston, Cambridgeshire County Council highway engineer for Huntingdonshire, says the technique has been used on non-principal roads by most highway authorities for many years.
Traffic helps to embed the stone, which would be crushed if a steel road roller were used, into the tar.
The chippings are swept twice - after 24 hours and seven days - and the sweepings re-used on other roads, he explained.
