Worst sections of road around

MikeyOz said:

was wondering if anybody else has some good ones to point out, I was
bouncing back home along what I think has to be one of the worst bits
of road going around in Melbourne anyway..... "Toorak Rd" about 3 km
stretch before it turns into Burwood Hwy heading out of the city, I
happened to come back that way again this morning, had not ridden it
for a while, but it soon bounced my memory back again, simply woeful,
not sure why it is, but there is one stretch where there are big
grooves in the road about every few metres apart for about a kilometre.
Great, great, great! The only highlight was riding past all the parked
cars as you get closer to chapel street 🙂

This is because the bitumen on top is laid over sections of old concrete
roadway from the 1920s that has never been updated, probably too
expensive and messy to remove completely. There are a number of sections
of vintage concrete road in Melb if you know where to look, but this is
one of the most prominent.
The discontinuities every ten metres or so, also cracking, settling and
related problems is one reason they abandoned concrete roads and went
over to bitumen in the first place.
Cheers,
Ray

it kinda amuses me that some of the hoity toitiest suburbs have the worst roads! Parts of Toorak, Armadale, Prahran, etc, are shockin'! How about Darling Rd, between Dandenong Rd and Malvern Rd? It's recently been fixed up, but it was total [censored] for as long as I can remember riding, which is about 20 years. And sections of Tooronga Rd are still sh1t 🙂

I guess the fanciest suburbs tend to be amongst the oldest suburbs, so..........but still!

531Aussie said:

I guess the fanciest suburbs tend to be amongst the oldest suburbs, so..........but still!

It's the same in Brisbane. I don't think that people's income, nor level of rates they pay, are taken into account when roads are being upgraded. Also, I'd rather live on a bad street (roadwise) - means less people are game to speed on it.

Lotte

531Aussie said:

it kinda amuses me that some of the hoity toitiest suburbs have the
worst roads! Parts of Toorak, Armadale, Prahran, etc, are shockin'!
How about Darling Rd, between Dandenong Rd and Malvern Rd? It's
recently been fixed up, but it was total [censored] for as long as I can
remember riding, which is about 20 years. And sections of Tooronga Rd
are still sh1t 🙂

Quoted message said:

I guess they tend to be among the oldest suburbs, so..........but
still!

The problem with old roads is not the maintenance of the surface, but the
base on which it lays. Murray St in Perth suffered from contstant cracking
of the surface for many, many years until they ripped it up in the '80s and
replaced the base. This means digging up at least a metre of material under
the road surface and replacing it. This takes a very long time time to do
and causes a huge amount of inconvenience, so most Councils just relayer the
top surface, which is a short term fix.

The previous road base they dug up in Murray St consisted of 450 mm jarrah
blocks standing on end. Who'd have thought that wasn't going to last for
ever?

Theo

Theo Bekkers said:

531Aussie
The problem with old roads is not the maintenance of the surface, but the
base on which it lays. Murray St in Perth suffered from contstant cracking
of the surface for many, many years until they ripped it up in the '80s and
replaced the base. This means digging up at least a metre of material under
the road surface and replacing it. This takes a very long time time to do
and causes a huge amount of inconvenience, so most Councils just relayer the
top surface, which is a short term fix.

The previous road base they dug up in Murray St consisted of 450 mm jarrah
blocks standing on end. Who'd have thought that wasn't going to last for
ever?

hmm, I see. I suppose it's made even more complicated when there are tram tracks there

Hello, Theo!
You wrote on Mon, 10 Sep 2007 08:18:10 +0800:

TB> 531Aussie wrote:
??>> it kinda amuses me that some of the hoity toitiest suburbs have the
??>> worst roads! Parts of Toorak, Armadale, Prahran, etc, are shockin'!
??>> How about Darling Rd, between Dandenong Rd and Malvern Rd? It's
??>> recently been fixed up, but it was total [censored] for as long as I can
??>> remember riding, which is about 20 years. And sections of Tooronga Rd
??>> are still sh1t 🙂

??>> I guess they tend to be among the oldest suburbs, so..........but
??>> still!

TB> The problem with old roads is not the maintenance of the surface, but
TB> the base on which it lays. Murray St in Perth suffered from contstant
TB> cracking of the surface for many, many years until they ripped it up in
TB> the '80s and replaced the base. This means digging up at least a metre
TB> of material under the road surface and replacing it. This takes a very
TB> long time time to do and causes a huge amount of inconvenience, so most
TB> Councils just relayer the top surface, which is a short term fix.

TB> The previous road base they dug up in Murray St consisted of 450 mm
TB> jarrah blocks standing on end. Who'd have thought that wasn't going to
TB> last for ever?

Bluestone cobble stones were ver popular in Melbourne prior to 1900 in the
inner suburbs many of these old roads have simply been covered over with
bitumen.

With best regards, ChrisRiley. E-mail: [email hidden]

MikeyOz said:

was wondering if anybody else has some good ones to point out, I was
bouncing back home along what I think has to be one of the worst bits
of road going around in Melbourne anyway..... "Toorak Rd" about 3 km
stretch before it turns into Burwood Hwy heading out of the city, I
happened to come back that way again this morning, had not ridden it
for a while, but it soon bounced my memory back again, simply woeful,
not sure why it is, but there is one stretch where there are big
grooves in the road about every few metres apart for about a kilometre.
Great, great, great! The only highlight was riding past all the parked
cars as you get closer to chapel street 🙂

Mayfield Road at Tarago (NSW) has some nice corrugations on the
unsealed sections near the two creek crossings.

It also builds up deep drifts of sandy gravel on the outside of
turns.

Oh, and being granite country you get interesting washed-out channels
along the road when it rains heavily.

But if you *really* want the worst, you need to ride the Plenty
Highway.

BTH

On 2007-09-10, BT Humble (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

MikeyOz said:

was wondering if anybody else has some good ones to point out, I was
bouncing back home along what I think has to be one of the worst bits
of road going around in Melbourne anyway..... "Toorak Rd" about 3 km
stretch before it turns into Burwood Hwy heading out of the city, I
happened to come back that way again this morning, had not ridden it
for a while, but it soon bounced my memory back again, simply woeful,
not sure why it is, but there is one stretch where there are big
grooves in the road about every few metres apart for about a kilometre.
Great, great, great! The only highlight was riding past all the parked
cars as you get closer to chapel street 🙂

Mayfield Road at Tarago (NSW) has some nice corrugations on the
unsealed sections near the two creek crossings.

It also builds up deep drifts of sandy gravel on the outside of
turns.

Oh, and being granite country you get interesting washed-out channels
along the road when it rains heavily.

But if you *really* want the worst, you need to ride the Plenty
Highway.

I've had a 700MB file sitting on my camera since lastnight. I shall
get around to cropping the interesting bits and putting them up on
youtube. The condition of the road is "enlightening". Especially at
80km/h.

Damn magpie had repeated goes at me while I was slogging up one of the
little molehills. I had my head turned back towards him for a good 30
seconds, and didn't catch a single frame of him on the camera -- it
just points aimlessly up into the air.

--
TimC
I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and
professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. -- Linus Torvalds, 1991

On Sep 10, 8:23 am, LotteBum <LotteBum.2wn...@no-

mx.forums.cyclingforums.com said:

531Aussie Wrote:> I guess the fanciest suburbs tend to be amongst the oldest suburbs,

Quoted message said:

so..........but still!

It's the same in Brisbane. I don't think that people's income, nor
level of rates they pay, are taken into account when roads are being
upgraded. Also, I'd rather live on a bad street (roadwise) - means
less people are game to speed on it.

Lotte

--
LotteBum

BCC engineers must have got a new toy recently - they are going around
with it grinding the top off the road. They must work at a rate that
stays ahead of the resurfacers - the roughened surfaces seem to stay
for several weeks. Nearly decked on some of it tonight at Chelmer -
yikes! I wonder if a gouged surface gives worse rash than smooth? The
latest bit is on the River Ride, so there will be thousands of riders
testing it out - there will be crashes, dead cert.

Donga

Donga said:

BCC engineers must have got a new toy recently - they are going around
with it grinding the top off the road. They must work at a rate that
stays ahead of the resurfacers - the roughened surfaces seem to stay
for several weeks. Nearly decked on some of it tonight at Chelmer -

Graceville Rd? I got caught out there yesterday. By the sounds of that,
I think I'll be looking for a new commute route for the next few weeks

Donga said:

....I wonder if a gouged surface gives worse rash than smooth? The
latest bit is on the River Ride, so there will be thousands of riders
testing it out - there will be crashes, dead cert.

Yes, yes it does.

(I'm basing that call on my experience of the much more effective
grinding job that coarse open-road bitmuen does on motorcycle leathers
than smooth inner-city hotmix.)

BTH

TimC said:

Damn magpie had repeated goes at me while I was slogging up one of the
little molehills. I had my head turned back towards him for a good 30
seconds, and didn't catch a single frame of him on the camera -- it
just points aimlessly up into the air.

Must be the day for it - I had my first swooping of the year this
afternoon. Little bugger made three attempts, but fortunately only
grazed my left ear on his last try.

BTH

On Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:50:06 -0700, BT Humble <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Must be the day for it - I had my first swooping of the year this
afternoon. Little bugger made three attempts, but fortunately only
grazed my left ear on his last try.

Beat you! Saturday, Gunning side of Gundaroo. Only wing clapped me,
guy ahead of me scored a helmet strike.

Heath said:

Donga said:

BCC engineers must have got a new toy recently - they are going around
with it grinding the top off the road. They must work at a rate that
stays ahead of the resurfacers - the roughened surfaces seem to stay
for several weeks. Nearly decked on some of it tonight at Chelmer -

Graceville Rd? I got caught out there yesterday. By the sounds of that,
I think I'll be looking for a new commute route for the next few weeks

Yep, that's the one. A few weeks ago they did Brisbane Road, next to
the St Loo golf club. Many riders would have come down the steep hill
for the sweeping left-hander and suddenly seen there was a lot more
hazard than the usual and well-known manhole covers. Yikes! Locked up
on that one, first time. Nice of them to put a warning sign about two
metres before the "rough surface".

Aeek said:

On Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:50:06 -0700,BTHumble <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Must be the day for it - I had my first swooping of the year this
afternoon. Little bugger made three attempts, but fortunately only
grazed my left ear on his last try.

Beat you! Saturday, Gunning side of Gundaroo. Only wing clapped me,
guy ahead of me scored a helmet strike.

Oh, do we count helmet strikes as hits? In that case he got me twice
yesterday, and once this morning.

I was only counting potential bloodletting as a hit! ;-)

BTH

On Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:27:57 -0700, BT Humble <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I was only counting potential bloodletting as a hit! ;-)

In which case I have been got once 30 years ago as a pedestrian,
and never as a cyclist. Maybe you need longer hair to screen the
target areas?

BT Humble said:

Aeek said:

On Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:50:06 -0700,BTHumble <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Must be the day for it - I had my first swooping of the year this
afternoon. Little bugger made three attempts, but fortunately only
grazed my left ear on his last try.

Beat you! Saturday, Gunning side of Gundaroo. Only wing clapped me,
guy ahead of me scored a helmet strike.

Oh, do we count helmet strikes as hits? In that case he got me twice
yesterday, and once this morning.

I was only counting potential bloodletting as a hit! ;-)

BTH

The Sutton to Gundaroo "shooting gallery", 2nd of August on my way out
to Gunning I had four maggies have a go at me. None of them really
serious though, just clapping wings and banging my helmet. After
Gundaroo not one!

The one I used to regularly see that was a real [censored] was the one on
the edge of the Molongo near the RMC entrance. Two years ago he/she was
really vicious and persistent, then magically disappeared. Is the one at
the top end of Challis Street Dickson at work again?