The Hole Truth
Print View
by: ASI Solutions
Total views: 4
Word Count: 636
By digging up roads to improve services to homes and offices, utility companies may be enhancing our lives in one respect but destroying lives in another. More and more utility companies are leaving their road work in a dangerous state and causing accidents as a result. Indeed road repairs rarely meet the necessary safety standards for today’s traffic use.
Local councils across the UK are struggling to maintain roads and now add the enormous number of utility company quick-fix repairs to their list of problems. Inadequate repairs using unsuitable materials do not create a safe and effective surface for road users.
Out of 300 roadwork reinstatements Devon County Council checked, over 200 of them resulted in the utility company responsible being prosecuted for not meeting 2004 legislative standards for safe and adequate road repair.
Traditional road repair methodology has changed very little for nearly a century. Conventional processes have remained problematic and largely non-sustainable and are a major cause of danger and disruption to road users and the general public, not least to motorcyclists and cyclists. Pothole repairs and road maintenance are being carried out as they were during the second world war despite the fact that far better, more modern technology is freely available in the UK.
There is a road repair process which eliminates the hazards of dangerous road work. It is based on infra-red technology and leaves repairs that don’t crack or split after a few weeks. The repairs are fl at, non-slippy, joint-free and permanent. It helps with road surface safety (no overbanding around the edge of the repair), recycling (aggregate is re-used cutting out the need to tip and repurchase) and operative safety (no pneumatic drills are needed). In addition, it meets all the criteria for asset management.
So why aren’t more organisations using this method? It requires change, planning and budgeting. It requires internal selling of a new process to both those at the top who hold the purse strings and those at the bottom who do the work. However, the benefi ts of the new process far outweigh the inconvenience of change. Indeed, money saved in compensation claims alone would represent a phenomenal saving of local authority road maintenance budgets.
Neil Caldwell, Managing Director of ASI plc says his company spent three years having their RhinopatchTM process assessed by the Highways Agency for performance, safety and sustainability and are now the only road repair process in the UK to have achieved full Highways approval. With this, they hope to eliminate a reason for resistance to change.
Last year ASI went one step further. In response to government initiatives and their current users’ requests, they developed a permanent emergency pothole response system, Rapid RhinoTM. Caldwell says their business is now snowballing, “for years we have been battling with a one-way communication trying to get them to understand the need to change their repair methodology. Now at last we have organisations phoning us and requesting to hire or buy our process.”
Caldwell flags up the increasing number of road casualties due to poor utility reinstatements and pothole repairs as the key reasons for the authorities to finally effect a change.
At Morrison Utility Services, Eddie Togher, Reinstatement Manager, says their clients were won over to Rhinopatch as soon as they heard the repaired surface would have more skid resistance than the previous conventional one. Eddie is not at all keen to use over-seal banding, “some local authorities no longer like it and it creates problems for us with cracking at the joints of the repair. It’s simple: the Rhinopatch method ensures an edge that is permanently joint-free.”
It seems that reducing road deaths and serious injuries is simple – the organizations involved in maintaining our roads should move with the times. There is new technology to mend roads so why aren’t they using it?
Article Source: http://articles-collections.com
About the Author
ASI Solutions plc is author of this article on Sustainable Road Repair . Find more information about Sustainable Road Repair here.
Search more with google:
Rating: Not yet rated
Comments
No comments posted.Add Comment
You do not have permission to comment. If you log in, you may be able to comment.More articles in this Category
1: Paying the bills: University Accommodation2: Customer Focus Is a Strategic Choice
3: Sometimes Spending More Can Save You In The End
4: Choosing a Reliable Removals Relocation Company
5: Charge Entry Services