Apparently there has been an increase in the number of bikes losing control on surface dressed carriageways due to loose chippings.  Now MCN are asking people with experience to contact them.

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/News/newsresults/Gene...one-chips/                                                                                                                                                                             

you would think in this day and age they'd have found a better way of doing this chippings lark bloody dangerouse allways has been and it vanishes after a few weeks anyway !!       Gravel rash // council trash more like                                                                                                                                                                             

WN, they have found several better ways of reintroducing aggregate into surfacing.  The simple truth is though that "applied chippings" is by far the cheapest.                                                                                                                                                                             

Maybe cheapest to apply, but have they considered the costs involved re: consequential accidents?   To be sure - NO!   Perhaps if they were billed for hospitaltion costs, they might re-condider.   Fat chance- we are govered by short-sighted morons!                                                                                                                                                                             

I've been in touch, I wrote my bike off a few years ago in such an incident.                                                                                                                                                                              

came across loads of this on road back from mablethorpe tother sunday... was a nightmare coz the loose chppings had all gathered directly on the bike line into each corner so we all had to alter our riding... i didint enjoy riding that bit at all .. and there was absolutely no warning that there was loose chippings till we came across it and it went on for some time the very light grey stuff that is like tiny stones.... out of order   edit: ive just sent an email to that link Geoff.... councils shouldnt be allowed to do this.... and no road markings to warn either                                                                                                                                                                              

A mate of mine had a spill on loose chippings and threatened to sue the council. His argument - that the sign said It was a slippery surface so they had recognised the problem and failed to act. They settled quickly.
Nice payout apparently.

Unacceptable practice, get em told!!!

Graham

Tis an even bigger problem in the Scottish Highlands......loose chippings......when they resurface roads up there, they do mile upon mile not just short stretches.                                                                                                                                                                             

on one of the back roads up here - i saw a roller. how brilliant was that? always the best roads are to be found in scotland!

i hate the loose chippings - seems so backwards in this day and age.
                                                                                                                                                                             

  Someone said to me that the loose gravel was the council/governments way of slowing motorbikes down in certain areas. May be a gravel erm I mean a grain of truth in that eh?                                                                                                                                                                              

No Sandi, much though we'd like to believe these tales, they simply aren't true.

The reason for the use of grey surface dressing over other means is purely cost.  Allow me to expand lol ....

Typical costs for the resurfacing of a 100m length of rural road;

Surface Dressing - spray of emulsion bituminous binder onto existing surface followed immediately by even layer of aggregate chippings.
Approx £1.50/sqm, total cost approx £1,125

Carriageway overlay - milling to 40mm along edges of existing carriageway, spray of emulsion bituminous binder onto prepared surface and resurface with 40mm hot rolled asphalt with applied precoated chippings.
Approx £12/sqm, total cost approx £9,000

Partial reconstruction - milling of minimum depth of 40mm across entire surface with localised additional excavation of up to 250mm, spray of emulsion bituminous binder onto prepared surface, binder course regulating using Dense Bitumen Macadam with 20mm nominal size aggregate and resurface with 40mm hot rolled asphalt with applied precoated chippings.
Approx £35-£60/sqm, total cost between £26,250 and £45,000

Last year North Yorkshire CC had a budget of roughly £56M for highway maintenance.  If all of this was spent on resurfacing, then the following quantities of road could have been dealt with according to method;

Surface Dressing - approx 5000km
Carriageway Overlay - approx 600km
Partial Reconstruction - between 125 and 210km

We all hate "surface dressing" and in particular the left over chippings which again for cost reasons are left to be brushed into the undergrowth by traffic, but until someone invents another quick, cheap and reliable method for resurfacing our roads, it's here to stay I'm afraid                                                                                                                                                                              

Why cant they put a roller over them, instead of leaving them as 'loose chippings'?                                                                                                                                                                             

probably because even using a roller costs money - in getting the roller there - fuel and wages - and removing the roller again. They find it alot cheaper for the traffic to do it. Unfortunately the traffic needs to be quite heavy (in volume and weight) to get it done quick.   Plus the costing doesn't really convince me 100% - Surface dressing just covers (sic) the problem. If the road surface is bad then it isn't long before the holes start wearing away again and its as bad as before, if not worse. Then it has to be done again, or a proper resurfacing (which lasts longer anyway).   I also wonder if the tar they use has been changed recently, or with the long hot spell we have had has made a difference because the roads with it done around here do not seem to be bedding in at all in the time they used to take.   We had tar sprayed up the side of one of our ambulances and it didn't seem the same stuff at all - not sticky and a pig to clean off, but dry, and more "paper" like                                                                                                                                                                             

The simple truth is though that "applied chippings" is by far the cheapest.


Pity they dont stay applied for very long                                                                                                                                                                              

The loose aggregate Shell is the excess, not new chippings coming out of the surface.