What do we do?

[harm_less]

In the mid 70s I used to work on the railways, passenger trains up and down the country, freight trains galore, not a lot of heavy trucks on the roads causing havoc and chewing up the roads creating potholes etc. Not saying its all the trucks fault but when I started with rail there were at least 40,000 people working and when I left there were just over 4000 so the balance of freight had to go somewhere and that somewhere is on our roads.

I don't remember there being as many bloody pot holes on roads back then either. No idea what they use to repair them these days, but it doesn't seem to last as long; there was a big one locally this time last year & I was sorely tempted to put a small Xmas tree - with lights - in it.


Perhaps we all need an ELF. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGDSkFQEOjo

The substandard repair of potholes is only half the story. Raising the HGV limit to 50T has really cranked up the damage being done to our roads and not just pavement failure but geological structures well below (and above) the road surface due to the percussive forces being generated by that extra weight deep into the basement layers. I travel SH3 to the north of Taranaki frequently enough to see the subsidence that is increasingly happening through Mt Messenger, the Awakino Gorge and Mahoenui Hills, often tens of metres below road level and extemely expensive to rectify in many cases. A bit of pothole mix is far from what is required there!