A new national day to rival St George’s Day will be observed for the first time this year – 15 January is National Pothole Day, a campaign day organised by Street Repairs in order to prompt motorists to speak out against the state of our roads. A number of companies within the tyre industry – including manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers – have voiced their support for the day.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced that a record £6 billion will be spent on tackling potholes and improving local roads between 2015 and 2021. The announcement was made today (23 December 2014) and the investment amounts to £976 million a year, apparently enough to fix around 18 million potholes across the country.
Patrick McLoughlin said: “Roads play a significant part in everyday life. Poorly maintained local roads, blighted by potholes, are a menace to all road users, particularly during the festive period as people travel to see family and friends. It is vital we have good quality roads. This government has already taken strong action by spending £1 billion more on local roads maintenance than was spent in the previous parliament.
Motorists in England will be pleased to hear the Government has allocated £168 million to repair pothole damage. Based on a cost of £53 for each temporary pothole repair, the money given to 148 councils will be used to fix around three million potholes. Councils that “demonstrate best practice in highways maintenance” will receive extra.
With UK roads are continuing to deteriorate, an estimated 200,000 potholes have resulted in 10 per cent of the 30 million road users’ cars being damaged, according to Chemix Autocentres.
The extremely wet British winter has had a devastating impact on the state of roads across the UK, a report by the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) has revealed. As a knock-on effect of the potholes, fast fit and garage network HiQ says that more motorists have been forced to repair their cars, increasing the number of such jobs by 14 per cent in November 2013 – February 2014 compared to the same period in 2012-2013.
Falken Tyre Europe is sponsoring a ‘rally with a difference’ this month. Yesterday, cars competing in the Black Sea Circle rally headed off from Berlin, and Falken says this – Europe’s most eastern rally – is “about driving the way it used to be.” The rally route takes competitors around the Black Sea as far as Odessa, a total distance of 7,000 kilometres (4,350 miles).
Bulgarian traffic police are making renewed efforts to tackle the reckless puncturing of tyres caused by criminals placing spikes in potholes. Police sources said that the recent examples have been deliberated set up to cause rapid deflations or blow-outs. According to the Sofia news agency, which cited private TV channel bTV, the tip-off to this crime was given by a Polish family, who complained to traffic authorities after narrowly escaping a serious car crash.
Snap-on Equipment has introduced an updated version of its popular wheel alignment guide. The guide aims to simplify the complex subject of wheel alignment, aiming to put jargon, such as “toe-in” and “toe-out” into plain English and introducing the latest alignment technology with detailed information and illustrations.
The latest statistics show that 12 per cent or 120,000 out of all of the UK’s one million potholes are not being filled by local councils, which means that repair bills are now soaring every year because of the lack of maintenance by government authorities. Since 1996, the number of claims has soared by 78 per cent in London alone, by 42 per cent in England and by 70 per cent in Wales. TyreSafe recommends that one method of reducing damage to tyres caused by potholes is to maintain them at the levels of pressure recommended by the vehicle manufacturer. If any level of damage is suspected, motorists should visit their nearest dealer or tyre retailer for their tyres to be examined for any faults.
Pirelli’s gravel tyre developed for use in the WRC championship has gained FIA approval for use this year. The new tyre, known as the Scorpion, is designed to deliver strong performance on a range of gravel surfaces and features an asymmetric directional tread pattern that is intended to provide solid lateral grip as well as traction when accelerating and braking.
The Scorpion’s design also reflects changes to tyre regulations introduced this year. “The 2008 FIA WRC regulations state that anti-deflation mousse cannot be used,” comments Pirelli. “So this year’s gravel tyre has been considerably strengthened in order to resist cuts, abrasions and punctures from sharp rocks, potholes, and other such obstacles.”
Pirelli’s gravel tyre developed for use in the WRC championship has gained FIA approval for use this year. The new tyre, known as the Scorpion, is designed to deliver strong performance on a range of gravel surfaces and features an asymmetric directional tread pattern that is intended to provide solid lateral grip as well as traction when accelerating and braking.
The Scorpion’s design also reflects changes to tyre regulations introduced this year. “The 2008 FIA WRC regulations state that anti-deflation mousse cannot be used,” comments Pirelli. “So this year’s gravel tyre has been considerably strengthened in order to resist cuts, abrasions and punctures from sharp rocks, potholes, and other such obstacles.”
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