I’m also more aligned of potholes and ruts being fault of the road than direct consequence of the weight of the lorries. Potholes aren’t very common on Finnish main road network and not even cities, although they are frequent encounter, but ruts are quite common.
Like welshboyinspain said, here in Finland we are allowed for 60 tonnes GVW but only some longer stretches come to my mind where ruts are frequent and fit to track width of the lorry. These stretches also aren’t heavily congested, but what they have somewhat common is soil, as these stretches seem often to be laid on arable land. Often lorry doesn’t fit to the track of the ruts as these ruts have been caused by cars.
welshboyinspain:
yes pete aren’t the weight limits in scandinavia much bigger than uk? 60 tonnes or something like that?
scanny if there are just short stretches that are tramlined then surely it’s the fault of the road otherwise all roads would be damaged fairly evenly around the country wherever trucks frequent?
this is exactly what i am trying to establish. the extra weight should be compensated for by the extra axle so there is not a massive increase on the road surface compared to 38 tons on 5 axles. i dont know about continental driving though which is why i need you guys to help answer the question. personally i think it is due to the roads themselves whether it be materials or what is under the road itself. it would even be possible to compare roads of different ages within the UK due to different materials and building techniques. a few years ago, most road resurfacing would result in a 20MPH limit with warnings of loose chippings but you dont see that very much now so they must have changed something within the construction, i dont know what though. using that logic, a road built 30 years ago would not be built the same way or possibly with the same materials as a road built 10 years ago. is there a difference in quality?
we are getting the blame but is there any truth in it or is it an underhand tactic to deflect the blame from the true problem which i suspect is the road itself?
We probably have the oldest roads in Europe while the rest of Europe us their grant money to build new we don’t bother and as a result our road system not just motorways seems to be deteriorating rather quickly.
The Roads in Europe are far superior and they seem to be able to repair and build quicker than we can. The foundations for our motorways are built with 38t in mind not the 44t that we have today.
On another note this applies to all the crash barriers in the uk they are designed to stop 38t and not 44t hence the big concrete central reservations that are popping up.
MrReliable:
On another note this applies to all the crash barriers in the uk they are designed to stop 38t and not 44t hence the big concrete central reservations that are popping up.
Must just correct you there- Armco barrier is designed to deflect a one tonne car travelling at 60mph which hits it at an angle of 40 degrees. It certainly wouldn’t even begin to contain a 38 tonne truck.
Strange how in europe you dont get so tired,as the quality of the road surface is different to here.The wagon kind of floats along with lower noise and resonation levels.Is it something to do with the minute air pockets on the surface that make the niose as the tyres go over it.You can tell the difference,if they have spent more money,by the way it sounds,like the A303,called the “Weakest link”,noisy road.Some parts of the M25 are falling apart.