Repairs effected

The hole in the road wasn't completely filled in, but left guarded by cones. I suspect there wasn't enough care core material left on the Council lorry to fill it in completely. Anyway, a team reappeared, and started drilling at about eight thirty today, excavating a two metre square patch of tarmac to expose the void, and then fill it in entirely. Nosey as ever, I went out to have a look and a chat with the workers.

No, the foreman told me, it wasn't a collapsed drain, as supposed. He said he'd attended to dozens of such holes around the city in old streets which may not have needed attention for many decades. He attributed the phenomenon to the compaction of underlying road material being done manually (i.e. just stamped upon by workmens' boots) in times past if there was no road roller to do the job. The streets now carry more weight of vehicles than in the era they were made (1900's), so if  the underlying layer isn't compacted evenly enough any time a repair is done, spontaneous collapses occur as the road material rearranges itself, and potholes appear. Nowadays, road mending teams have a variety of  smaller portable pieces of equipment that one person can operate, to provide the desired finish.

It's interesting to note that the lane behind the street remains riddled with potholes, though none of the is deep or dangerous. Here the problem is the other way around. The underlying road material is firm, harder than the tarmac laid upon it. It doesn't resist extremes of temperature so well, and over a few years it breaks up and needs re-surfacing. It's probable that even a back lane now takes as much traffic as a crowded street, and in time this will need taking into account when re-surfacing.

I've noticed over time that dealing with potholes is an unofficial performance indicator for Council services. It's one of the things that can suffer in time of budget cut backs. The good thing about the City's 101 hotline for accessing public services, is that members of the public can draw attention to issues that can be dealt with quickly, as opposed to them having to wait upon less frequent inspections to be noted for action. A policy of encouraging all citizens to take an active interest in their environment can certainly help local government cope better with financial constraint.