Road surface safety - Full credit to WCC and TelstraClear

[rustic101]

Yesterday I just about binned my bike turning from Hawkestone Street into Molesworth Street, right outside the ACC National Office. It was bucketing down with rain and the entry I had made to the corner; (one I have taken hundreds of times) saw me going straight over the top of a large rectangle aluminium utility cover. . Ordinarily I make a big point of not riding over these.

So the front hits and drops out, sliding sideways, the rear hits, drops and skids out luckily (due to my fat ass) the rear slid faster than the front both tyres hit the edge of the cover and the tar seal at the same time, snapping me upright. After a little power on the throttle I continued up the road pulled into work and emptied my pants, had three or four smokes and pushed the foam cone that had formed on the seat back down.

A few people walking to work saw this and commented on the great skills I used to recover. Did not have the heart to tell them it was only luck that saved me from dropping the bike. Also the fact that the tyres were replaced a few weeks back and scrubbed in… This happened so fast that I did not even have time to think Fark.....

So I phone the Wellington City Council and report what I believed was a dangerous surface. After some plonking around by the call centre person (she had no idea what I was on about), I received a call from Arthur the WCC Roading Engineer. He listened and explained that it was a TelstraClear cover which met the safety criteria; however he was concerned it presented a genuine danger and nearly caused a crash. Arthur said ‘leave it with me’..

Expected the big bums rush, well bugger me, Arthur called me back an hour or so later. He and the TelstraClear Infrastructure Manager had visited the site. Arthur explained that TelstraClear are undertaking a National replacement of all these covers (road surface only) however this will take time. Regardless, each agreered the cover was in a dangerous position on the apex and needed to be fixed. As a result it will be covered with a bitumen emulsion mixed with grit.

Full credit to WCC and TelstraClear

O the replacement product is a steel frame with concret infill I think??? thats what they said.

[YellowDog]

Well done onthe recovery. You may say it was lucky but many would have grabbed a fist full of brakes and gone down; so you made some of your own luck.

That's pretty impressive going from Testra.

[rustic101]

Yeah to be honest I seriousley though I would have got 'harden the fark up'.. Must admit the chick I talked to was a muppet, so went down and took pictures for her lol, ended up not being required.

[Crasherfromwayback]

It was bucketing down with rain and the entry I had made to the corner; (one I have taken hundreds of times) saw me going straight over the top of a large rectangle aluminium utility cover. . Ordinarily I make a big point of not riding over these.

If you don't mind me asking...seeing as you've made that same corner hundreds of times...what made you decide to ride over the cover this time in the wet?

[Flip]

Good on you.

These places are businesses and if you report a hazard they have to do something about it. OK some will just flick you off, but if there is an accident and someone has previously reported it they can be held criminally negligent.

Thinking about iit it's important that we do report road hazards to the RCA (Road Controling Authority) in your area, you might give another rider a very strong case for damages. The RCA's love to bag the network owners that operate in their turf. I bet if you went to the network owner you would never have heard a dicky bird, road safety is not something they seem to care about.

[Trudes]

Well done for doing something about it instead of just coming on here complaining about something.

[raftn]

Well the way Telecom is going,if this got in the news about teltstra, it would give even more reason for people to jume ship!

[CookMySock]

Well the way Telecom is going,if this got in the news about teltstra, it would give even more reason for people to jume ship!

Hehe telecon has been going that way for years, it's just recently getting much worse.

Yeah it's easy to inadvertently hit something and have a ski, and having an engineer put something exactly in the wornga place dunt help.

Steve

[Swoop]

Good thing it is being fixed by TelstraClear.

If Tell-lie-con fixed it, like they "fixed" the XT network...

[R6_kid:Me]

As a result it will be covered with a bitumen emulsion mixed with grit..

No excuses, this should have been done in the first place.

[p.dath]

That's great news? It's amazing what happens if you just ask ...

[Skyryder]

Good to see that some one has taken a bit of their own time to report a dangerouse 'object.' So on behalf of whoever never had a bin......................thanks.



Skyryder

[pc220]

What, a council employee that takes notice of someones concerns?. This would be a whole new concept.