Poor conditions of roads

sgt_doofey · 19-02-2007, 02:01 PM

Well, I am finally going to get off my butt and do something about the poor quality of roads that I have to drive along each weekday to get to and from work. Below is a copy of an e-mail that I sent to Patrick Conlon, the South Australian Minister of Transport.

--------------------------------------------
Attn: Patrick Conlon.

I am writing to you in regards to the condition of the roads that I have to drive every day on my way to and from work.
The roads in question are Gomersal Road between She-Oak Log and Tanunda, Sturt Highway between She-Oak Log and Gawler, and Main North Road at Gawler.
I live out in Tanunda in the Barossa Valley and commute in to the city every weekday for work. Most days I simply drive in to Gawler and catch the train in to the city as it is much easier and relaxing than having to drive in.

The conditions of these roads are quite appalling and I am surprised that in the 12 months that I have been using them that there haven't been more accidents along them.

The surface of Gomersal Road constantly breaks up and there are sometime up to 5-8 pot holes along this road, caused no doubt by the number of cars and trucks that use this road to and from the Barossa Valley. It also has insufficient illumination along the sides and middle of the road. This becomes quite apparent in the winter when driving home at night time. When an oncoming car is approaching, then it is very difficult to see where the road goes, or more importantly, any changes in the condition of the road (e.g.
potholes). This road is at it worst though during winter and when it is raining. It is impossible to see where the road is when passing oncoming cars and there have been numerous times when I have had to slow down from the signposted speed of 90km/h to speeds of 50km/h or less, simply due to the fact that I can not see safely in front of the car and where the road is. This matter could easily be solved by some better illumination being provided for this road (e.g. new reflectors on the sides and middle of the road.)

The Sturt Highway / Main North Road out near Gawler is another road which surface is quite appalling. It is amazing that there isn't more accidents along this road considering it's condition and the signposted speed of 110km/h. In my opinion, the worst section is between the Virginia/Angle Vale turn off and the Gawler bypass (heading South). I constantly drive with the two left wheels in the emergency stopping lane to try and avoid the majority of ruts and undulations, but even that is not enough. It is by far the worst sealed road I have driven along in my 13 years of driving.

It is good to see the work being done on Main North Road around the Smithfield / Munno Para / Elizabeth region to help improve the quality of roads there, but in my opinion, those road upgrades really should be done after the sections past Gawler have been attended to first as this is where I believe that the road is in the worst condition.
Another prime example of money being spent where it shouldn't have been is the roads around my mother's house were recently resurfaced in Wynn Vale. Those roads are all residential streets, the majority of which are either cul-de-sac's or no through roads which very little traffic travels along. Granted the 545 bus route does travel on a couple of them and that probably warrants attention due to the number of patrons that catch the bus, but why was money spent resurfacing these streets when there are roads out there that desperately need the attention?

I thank you for the time taken to read this e-mail and I look forward to hearing your views on my complaints.
Thank you in advance,

Sam Cox.
--------------------------------------------

I encourage you to contact your local minister to try and help fix up some of the poor roads that we have to endure, especially here in South Australia.
For SA, it's Patrick Conlon: minister.conlon@saugov.sa.gov.au

I will also be taking this matter up with my local council very shortly as well. These roads are very dangerous to drive along due to the poor conditions they are in and something really needs to be done about it.

robjh80 · 19-02-2007, 05:39 PM

Go get em Sam, good on ya

When your done can you fire one off to Peter Beattie, the roads up here in Qld are little more than a standing joke as well.

Makes one wonder where all the taxes and petrol rip-off money goes doesn't it?

Outbackjack · 19-02-2007, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robjh80

Go get em Sam, good on ya

When your done can you fire one off to Peter Beattie, the roads up here in Qld are little more than a standing joke as well.

Makes one wonder where all the taxes and petrol rip-off money goes doesn't it?

You are not wrong. We did the drive from Cairns to the Alice in january this year. Once you head west from Atherton the roads are, at best, 3rd world standard. Unbelievable, QLDers are truly being ripped off.

DoreSlamR · 19-02-2007, 06:44 PM

If i were you i'd get a petition started aswell. A single email usually falls on deaf ears, especially if it's to someone like the minister of transport.

Good luck!

Green X · 19-02-2007, 07:33 PM

Yeah next thing you know the speed limit on the offending roads will be dropped by 20km/h to “solve” the problem

sgt_doofey · 19-02-2007, 11:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Green X

Yeah next thing you know the speed limit on the offending roads will be dropped by 20km/h to “solve” the problem

More than likely, just in the places where I complained.
There has been a bit of coverage in the local paper last year in regards to the quality of the roads in the Barossa Valley, but not much has happened. A few bits and pieces have been resurfaced here and there, but not the roads I drive regularly.
I genuinely fear for my safety (let alone other people on the same road) when driving home on a wet winters night with oncoming traffic. You simply can not see where the road goes.
We did have one fatality on Gomersal Road last year, but that wasn't due to the poor quality of the road or the lack of illumination. I believe a car ran up the back of a truck one morning.

Anyway, I'm interested to see what sort of response I get from the orifice, whoops, I mean office of the minister, if I receive one at all.

[Tonko] · 20-02-2007, 12:54 AM

when the local council was spraying the edge of my road, i asked if they could fill a pothole up the road a bit (about 50cm across in the centre of the road), because i snapped 2 RH struts when i hit it, and our neighbour smashed his 19'' rim, they just laughed at me and said i had to fill out a complaint with the local council...

So if the pollies dont have to drive on that road, they dont care...
I look forward to seeing how you go!

sgt_doofey · 20-02-2007, 10:57 PM

Received an acknowledgment today:

Dear Mr/s Cox

On behalf of the Minister for Transport, the Hon Patrick Conlon MP, I acknowledge receipt of your email dated 19 February 2007 concerning road conditions.

Your correspondence is currently receiving attention and a response will be forwarded at the earliest opportunity.

Your sincerely

Jacqui ......
A/Office Manager to the
MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT

They also asked for an address for future correspondence, which I provided in a separate e-mail. I guess it'll be a few days before I receive something in the mail.
A fine for driving in the emergency lane perhaps?

Pedro · 20-02-2007, 11:20 PM

[QUOTE=sgt_doofey]Received an acknowledgment today:

Dear Mr. Cox

Your correspondence is currently receiving attention and a response will be forwarded at the earliest opportunity.

Your sincerely

Jacqui ......QUOTE]

I applaud your initiative Sam, but having been down this road myself, I have found the" Hall of Mirrors" usually applies ... they're looking into it.

P6LTD351 · 20-02-2007, 11:31 PM

Well done for doing something good! Best of luck

banarcus · 21-02-2007, 09:41 AM

Perhaps some of the roads you raise are the responsibility of certain Councils? Would it be more beneficial to email them as well?

sgt_doofey · 21-02-2007, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by banarcus

Perhaps some of the roads you raise are the responsibility of certain Councils? Would it be more beneficial to email them as well?

No doubt. That is the sort of response that I think I'll get from the minister. The roads in question covers about 30-40kms and probably 2-3 councils.

Actually, it's Barossa, Light Regional and Gawler councils.

ltd · 21-02-2007, 10:20 AM

I wrote a letter to our premier 6 months ago concerning the state of our roads, as well as the M5 tunnels that are 2 lanes, lacking ventilation and always a car park in peak times. His response was outlined below.

Dear Sir,

F&^% off.
Who do you think you are and how dare you be critical of myself or my regime. You are nothing but an insignificant speck of dust and quite frankly, you have no right to ask for anything. Quite frankly, I think I am doing a fantastic job serving my mates and my own interests, who are you to complain?
So what if I squander money on tunnels that the developers pay me a handsome dividend for; that's my business.
I suggest you cease and desist in sending me correspondence or else I'll get all my mates from Lakemba to come and get you.

F&^% You,

Morris Iemma
Premier of the third reich

PS. Eat ****.

Some times it just doesn't pay to complain.

james22 · 21-02-2007, 12:56 PM

LMFAO, sounds about right

outback_ute · 22-02-2007, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TonkoXR8

when the local council was spraying the edge of my road, i asked if they could fill a pothole up the road a bit (about 50cm across in the centre of the road), because i snapped 2 RH struts when i hit it, and our neighbour smashed his 19'' rim, they just laughed at me and said i had to fill out a complaint with the local council...

So if the pollies dont have to drive on that road, they dont care...
I look forward to seeing how you go!

Find out who looks after pothole filling at the council, and let them know! If they don't know they can't fix it.

TheSneakiness · 22-02-2007, 11:27 AM

I'd love to complain about the state of the Bruce Highway between Cooroy and the Sunshine Motorway merge, but unless I get a million others to do the same, they're aren't going to do a damn thing.

I play Pothole Dodging on the way into work everyday...

Homer1 · 22-02-2007, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ltd

I wrote a letter to our premier 6 months ago concerning the state of our roads, as well as the M5 tunnels that are 2 lanes, lacking ventilation and always a car park in peak times. His response was outlined below.

Dear Sir,

F&^% off.
Who do you think you are and how dare you be critical of myself or my regime. You are nothing but an insignificant speck of dust and quite frankly, you have no right to ask for anything. Quite frankly, I think I am doing a fantastic job serving my mates and my own interests, who are you to complain?
So what if I squander money on tunnels that the developers pay me a handsome dividend for; that's my business.
I suggest you cease and desist in sending me correspondence or else I'll get all my mates from Lakemba to come and get you.

F&^% You,

Morris Iemma
Premier of the third reich

PS. Eat ****.

Some times it just doesn't pay to complain.

LOL! Steve Bracks and his mob of useless cronies would have the same letter, only with his name in place of Iemmas!

Hunter · 22-02-2007, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Axe

I'd love to complain about the state of the Bruce Highway between Cooroy and the Sunshine Motorway merge, but unless I get a million others to do the same, they're aren't going to do a damn thing.

I play Pothole Dodging on the way into work everyday...

Haha try the Gateway Motorway - its woeful. When I used to work at Eagle Farm, I drove from Kallangur every day and I swear to god I had some hairy moments dodging potholes that I couldn't see in advance due to the number of cars ahead of me. Usually you just start to dodge if someone else ahead does, cause usually that means there's a f-off pothole about to come your way.

For about 18 months they just filled the potholes in (and then by the end of the week, they'd come back). About a year ago they started to resurface it. They resurfaced it about 6 times I reckon. Why not just rip the whole lot up and start again? I heard from someone that the reason they keep needing to resurface it is that when it was built during the Sir "Brown Paper Bag full of money" Joh of the National Party era, they did not lay the foundations properly (and its an entirely bitumen/roadbase construction) and basically the surface was doomed to fail.

Fast forward to the late 90s and the Beattie Govt. built the new Pacific Motorway, and this time it was built using CONCRETE like all major roads SHOULD BE. Funnily enough I actually don't mind driving on it! I hate driving on the Gateway and will go out of my way to do so - its clearly a hazard and if there's one way I want to die, its not from a bloody pothole.

DivHunter · 22-02-2007, 03:20 PM

There are contract renewals up for 6 councils (G6 they pool their resources) and others 6-8 months ago in SA. Road classification and who is responsible for each classification has a huge impact on the length of time allowed for repairs (of any type) to be done to any given road.

e.g. for Victoria - pothole on a freeway 24-48 hours, major road 2 weeks-1 month, suburban ~3 months, unsealed - never, wait for scheduled grading as the interval for grading is often less or equal to the time limit on repairs to these roads.

National govt., State govt. and Councils go for the lowest bidder often with rediculous demands for what they are willing to pay.

ltd · 22-02-2007, 08:38 PM

I love how they repair roads.
First we'll look at the construction.
When they lay them they have a several tonned machine that lays the hot bitumen, steam rollers to compress it to within a certain hardness, and then they generally allow it to sort of cool to increase hardness so the net effect is a road that can carry 42 tonne trucks without breaking up.

Then you have a look at the repairs.
A council truck with 12 men, a bit of warm bitumen and a shovel.
Sounds impressive until you see that 11 of them aren't actually doing anything about the hole, they direct traffic, smoke, scratch their asses for a few hours while one of them fills the hole with bitumen and whacks it with the other end of the shovel. Rest of the council workers go on a break for 2 hours keeping their road barriers and rubbish in place until it is time to go home.

First car rides over it and before you know it, half the pothole has opened up and bitumen is everywhere. Total cost to the ratepayers; about $8000.00.
Total effect; nothing.
What a democracy.

mik · 22-02-2007, 09:12 PM

there are plenty of poorly serviced roads in melb, i often think to myself as i hit a bad section there goes my alignment, obviousley no pollies use that bit of road or it would be fixed quick smart, .............well done sgt doofey for being pro active.

Hunter · 22-02-2007, 10:02 PM

I also hate how various tradesmen/workmen cut up sections of the road (to lay pipes/cables/whatever) then don't fill it properly leaving a depressed area of the road. Some places I drive over are so bad its like driving on the surface of the bloody moon.

I hate shoddy work and for some reason, Brisbane roads (other than the Pacific Motorway & Southeast Freeway) seem to be pretty shithouse. I'm convinced the suspension wear on my Falcon has been accelerated due to poor quality roads.