What is our road made of?

[red mermaid]

And of course there is the illegal ones running round at the 50 tonne and over range.

[p.dath]

The maximum gross weight currently allowed is 44 tonne.

Trials are being held on 50 tonne units, and the Road Transport Forum is lobbying hard to bring them in nationally.

I wish we could balance our nations transport better. Trains and domestic shipping are well suited for moving heavy loads.

The problem is roading is going to cost $x/tonne, and shipping and trains will probably be a little bit higher. However 50T trucks will do a lot more damage to the roading network, and the rest of the road users will be picking up the bigger portion of the bill. Trucks aren't as economical as they first look when you consider the size of potential subsidies.

[red mermaid]

According to the Road Transport Forum (RTF), bigger trucks will not do more damage.

A standard twin tyred axle in NZ is legally allowed to have a maximum weight of 8.2 tonne.

However when those axles are put in a truck and trailer it becomes complicated. The 2 front steering axles are allowed 5.4 tonne each, which is a maximum of 10.8 tonne for the axle group, that leaves about 34 tonne for the other 6 axles = approx 5.7 tonne per axle.

Therefore the RTF maintain that with the roads engineered for an axle load of 8.2 T but most trucks running at 5.7 T there is plenty of room for an increase in truck weights.

An associated complication with this is that maximum lengths are likely to increase from 20 metres to 22 metres.

[The Pastor]

A surface made out of stones, stuck together with a black substance under the name of tar. the men in orange are laying tar

no tar on our roads. try bitch-a-man

[Bald Eagle]

According to the Road Transport Forum (RTF), bigger trucks will not do more damage.


An associated complication with this is that maximum lengths are likely to increase from 20 metres to 22 metres.

Does that mean the potholes will get further apart

[slofox]

Have you ever stopped your bike and laid down on the road and looked at it up close?.

Last time I laid down on the road I got run over by a semi-trailer...which explains a lot...

[TOTO]

Last time I laid down on the road I got run over by a semi-trailer...which explains a lot...

Did you look at the road tho ?

[SPman]

As was mentioned on tv some months ago, young drunk people, (usually uni students), steal all manner of road signage warning us of dangers ahead, and are probably responsible for killing quite a few people. .

Jeez, when I was a young, drunk uni student, we used to steal manhole covers. Wake up at midday after a party...what the fucks that manhole cover doing in the lounge....Now that takes real dedication to the creation of chaos! God knows what we were thinking...ingesting... at the time...........

However the rest of the roads seem to be about the same as we get here.

- except they don't melt in prolonged 40+ temps.......

[slofox]

Did you look at the road tho ?

Yep. It was black.

[slofox]

I reckon the roads round the Waikato are made of cow shit - I sure see plenty of it out there...

[Blackshear]

I like hotmix a shitload better.
Worked with it and worked with the tar&heavymetal bullshit before, hotmix takes a bit more manpower, but the result is infinitely better.
It's that super-smooth, no-chunk no-gunk surface.