CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

Pothole Escalation

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  1. Nelly
    Member

    I went over the vast pothole at the west end of Strathearn Place on a number 5 bus last night.

    Removing the obvious irony of the probable cause of said hole, the bus thumped and visibly dropped into this hole with both front and back wheels.

    Its getting worse by the week.

    I have reported this on Fixmystreet at least 3 times since November and the hole has just got bigger and deeper - it must be a foot deep and two+ wide !!

    Its right on what you might think of as the "cyclists line" and avoiding it means taking yourself way out into the traffic - not a problem at the time I usually go in, but will be seriously challenging for later commuters.

    I am now worried that some poor sod will hit this and either injure themselves (you would need some serious skills to bunny hop it), or fall under the wheels of a following vehicle.

    Apart from what I have already done, is there another route to have this picked up?

    Councillor?

    Posted 8 years ago #

  2. chdot
    Admin

    Photos would be useful.

    Twitter is often effective.

    This is fairly new and seems to pass things to 'the right department', which is at least a start.

    "

    This is the official @Edinburgh_CC Customer Service account. How can we help? Tweet us or check our website for our online services. We’re here 24/7.

    "

    https://mobile.twitter.com/edinhelp

    Posted 8 years ago #

  3. Stephan Matthiesen
    Member

    Twitter works well in my experience too. Mostly they seem to pass it on to the right people, but occasionally I got a reply that I should report it through the council website, where it then sits for about half a year, after sending an automatic message that I will get a personalised response in 5 working days.

    Twitter has the advantage that you can nag every day and copy more and more people in (@LAHinds for example).

    Posted 8 years ago #

  4. Nelly
    Member

    Thanks both, I thought of nagging Lesley, but feel she has bigger fish to fry.

    Will try edinhelp on twitter (and post the photo on here).

    Good test of the newish service.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  5. chdot
    Admin

    "feel she has bigger fish to fry"

    Yes!

    She seems to have got past the stage of feeling the need to respond to all Tweets, but I expect she reads things that she's tagged into.

    Still sensible not to include her in 'everything' - people also address their 'my bin hasn't been collected' problems to her...

    Andrew Burns is still quite responsive and retweets quite a lot.

    I know Twitter isn't the real world, but it's still good for quick contacts and getting points across...

    Posted 8 years ago #

  6. Stephan Matthiesen
    Member

    "feel she has bigger fish to fry"

    Yes, I wouldn't copy her into everything, but for more serious issues (dangerous potholes or such) where you don't get a useful response from the "teams" for ages it helps to copy here in.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  7. Snowy
    Member

    If you've reported a dangerous pothole three times with no action taken, I'd certainly copy in LH and AB.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  8. Nelly
    Member

    Darn it, the rain has filled it in, maybe a better one tomorrow.

    I wanted to put something in it (coke can or the like) to give a better scale - but it is deep (bus went by immediately after and tried to avoid it !!)

    Posted 8 years ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    "the rain has filled it in, maybe a better one tomorrow"

    Which highlights part of the problem - unless you've been past before, you've no idea how deep it is!

    I'm a bit surprised it hasn't been filled there' been a remarkable amount of tarmac shovelled onto cracks all over south Edinburgh in recent weeks.

    Perhaps CEC knows all about it and is planning to fix it 'properly', but if so that is a bit negligent.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  10. chdot
    Admin

    You should go back with a ruler and an assistant!

    Posted 8 years ago #

  11. Arellcat
    Moderator

    Not a new pothole, either. This was in March 2011:

    Posted 8 years ago #

  12. Snowy
    Member

    As I pottered around this weekend I thought I'd keep a mental note of the real howlers, you know, the ones 2 foot across and 6 inches deep, and then report them. By Sunday morning I'd run out of mental capacity (yes, more than three, since you ask...)

    New tactic - I'll leave 10 mins earlier for work and try and get a few photos. The ones that nearly dismounted me last week at Colinton Road/Myreside Road are top candidates.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  13. Nelly
    Member

    "Not a new pothole, either"

    Indeed, its been filled poorly a couple of times since then.

    Due to the bus traffic, it really needs a proper job.

    It's worth stopping for a minute if you are passing to see/hear the impact when a vehicle hits it.

    Incidentally, and back o/t I had a reply from the twitter account suggested by chdot above.

    Nice work answering a tweet on Sunday.

    @edinhelp: @nelly0168 Are you able to provide a property number that this close to the pothole. I can then get Clarence to attend. Thanks ^RC

    Posted 8 years ago #

  14. chdot
    Admin

    That's good.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  15. Neil
    Member

    The state of roads in Edinburgh is frankly an embarrassment. I reckon it's dangerous too, making it more likely that a cyclist swerves "unexpectedly" and is hit by a car. They're arguably bad enough that they could discourage cycling in the city.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  16. mmaohara
    Member

    I agree, the state of the roads are dreadful in Edinburgh. Dangerous for cyclists and expensive for buses, cars etc in repairs due to the potholes causing damage.

    Sadly the council don't seem to care at all which, considering it has an impact on most people and companies in the city in some way, is quite surprising. I am surprised there hasn't been more pressure on them to get the roads sorted.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  17. chdot
    Admin

    "I am surprised there hasn't been more pressure on them to get the roads sorted."

    Plenty pressure, just doesn't seem to make much difference.

    I find it hard to believe that CEC doesn't have "evidence" that (literally) a wheelbarrow of tarmac (while it's raining) compacted with a very light roller is cost effective.

    Obviously a lot of issues relate to 'poorly reinstated utility works' and there have been lots of attempts to deal with this - but nothing seems to change.

    One factor is that patching counts as revenue and major resurfacing is capital. Though as revenue budgets tend to be smaller (and squeezed) I don't really understand why there isn't more proper resurfacing rather than perpetual patching.

    Additionally it's more than anecdotal that money is often spent on low traffic (road and pavement) side streets and culs-de-sac which don't always seem to have been 'urgent'.

    The old joke (or not) was that such streets were where councillors lived.

    Of course less traffic would help.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  18. chdot
    Admin

    Meanwhile on Causewayside (QBiC)

    "
    EdinburghTravelNews (@edintravel)
    09/02/2016, 11:01 am
    @chunkymcfatso @digitalraven We think this might be a collapsed manhole that's been fenced off. @south_team roads folk are checking on it ^J

    "

    Posted 8 years ago #

  19. algo
    Member

    This pothole/collapsed manhole cover is here:

    if you're travelling by bike southbound and going straight on and traffic is blocked by right-turning cars to Grange road, then it is possible and not unsafe to slip around on the left hand side.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  20. mmaohara
    Member

    I know this is a cycling forum but I am going to express my annoyance at a deep pothole on Lothian Road resulting in one damaged rear car tyre costing probably about £65 to fix. B*****ds

    Posted 8 years ago #

  21. chdot
    Admin

    Well you know that it's worth billing CEC.

    Did you take photos?

    Posted 8 years ago #

  22. unhurt
    Member

    Re: Causewayside, was definitely the pothole/drain collapse (with visible cables of some sort in the hole, erk) that was fenced off this morn, so hopefully it'll be gone in the next day or so. Hurrah, as it's been looking increasingly underworld-entrancely over the past week!

    Posted 8 years ago #

  23. drnoble
    Member

    I've found that reporting potholes via the FixMyStreet app to be quite easy and often gets things fixedpatched reasonably quickly. It automatically reports your position from GPS and you can add a photo easily. Easier to do this when walking than when on the bike, but I do both.

    A couple on my way into work (Oswald Rd/Blackford Av) have been patched within 24/48hrs of reporting.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  24. sallyhinch
    Member

    I always go through Fix My Street because then it's public that the pothole has been reported (and if someone else suffers the consequences it's clear the council knew about it). There was a guy here who hit a vicious pothole and broke his back (and damaged his very nice bike that he hadn't quite got round to telling his wife about, but that's another story) and the council were able to wriggle out of compensating him on the grounds that they didn't know it was there and had last inspected the road only 2 months before. Fortunately, he wasn't permanently injured but it could have been extremely nasty. As it was, he was more aggrieved about the bike...

    Posted 8 years ago #

  25. mmaohara
    Member

    I didn't know you could bill CEC chdot. Thanks for the info - we didn't get a picture this time but I'm sure there will be a next time given the state of the roads so we'll get a picture.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  26. chdot
    Admin

    "I didn't know you could bill CEC"

    Of course you have to have a degree of proof.

    Will need fairly exact position of hole - nearest shop/stair number to start with.

    Reasonable chance hole already reported so they will know about it.

    Councils don't just go 'ok here's the money', but generally want to avoid bother/cost of legal case it claim justified (this is not a legally binding opinion...).

    Posted 8 years ago #

  27. mmaohara
    Member

    Oh yes, understandably you have to prove it but it's good to know you can, when it is appropriate.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  28. Nelly
    Member

    Hole has been filled with tarmac.........and is already sagging due to bus traffic <sigh>

    Posted 8 years ago #

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