Cheshire East Highways are currently repairing the large potholes on South Street, which several local residents have complained to us about.
One of the potholes was only repaired in April this year but started to break up shortly afterwards.
Commenting on the standard of pothole repairs at the time, Jerry Dixon said "I do have serious doubts about the quality of these repairs. As a cyclist it is particularly evident that many repairs have clearly been done in haste and consequently they start breaking up soon after being completed."
Cheshire East Council (CEC) has been using a new method of pothole repair, called 'velocity patching' which uses a blend of bitumen and chippings that are passed through a hose at high speed from a maintenance vehicle.
However, one of the men working at South Street today informed me that they were not using velocity patching on these potholes.
He said "We are reinstating them by sawing out, excavating the area and then patching which is a better method than velocity patching."
The Council has repaired 56,636 potholes across Cheshire East so far this year and pledged to invest £25m over the next two years to revitalise the Borough's roads.
You can report a pothole via the Council's website or by calling the highways team on 0300 123 5020.
Updated: 19th November 7.33pm.
A spokesperson for Cheshire East Council said: "The work carried out last April and recently was to urgently repair potholes identified during safety inspections.
"The latest repairs were due to the further deterioration of the road surface.
"Whenever possible, we carry out permanent repairs by cutting out the damaged area, sealing the sides of the hole, filling it with hot bitumen macadam and compacting the material with a roller or vibrating plate.
"This involves a considerable amount of equipment, so it is not always possible to carry out a full repair immediately on every urgent pothole. When this is not possible, we use cold material as an emergency measure and aim to go back to do a permanent repair at a later date. Emergency repairs are not as effective as permanent ones and sometimes fail, so repeat visits are sometimes necessary.
"South Street has already been identified for more substantial patching works in the new financial year. It will be necessary to close the road to through traffic to allow for the works to be carried out. It would then be the intention to add this street to the upcoming programmes of surface dressing to seal the surface and prevent any future deterioration.
"Cheshire East Council has invested £25m over a two year programme to begin to tackle the condition of the highway network. Inspections are regularly undertaken across the whole of the network to ensure that any defects that reach intervention levels are remedied quickly.
"Defect repairs are based on the condition of the road and not its category, with all works subject to the availability of funding."
Photos: 1 & 2. Work being carried out today. 3 & 4 The state of South Street last week. 5. South Street taken in April shortly after the pothole was repaired. 4. South Street pothole prior to it being repaired.
Comments
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What an utter waste of time and money this Council have spent on potholes this year.
The repair once again on South Street confirms everything that was said at the time, when they "repaired" it earlier this year ............ (I prefer to call it "botched-up" ...... not "repaired")
It would be funny if it were not our money being thrown away by these useless methods !
not properly maintained in the past.It is said that chickens come home to roost!