Rivers of Tar

[MrKiwi]

This weekend, being a three day weekend down here in the lower North Island, I jumped on the bike for a 3 day ride.

The temperatures were pretty hot, consistently high 20's and low 30's. The route I took was Lower Hutt, Masterton, Napier via the Ongaonga alternative route, Wairoa to Gisborne on Saturday. Sunday I rode the Waioeka Gorge to Opotiki, round to Kawerau, up past the lakes to Rotorua, Taupo back to Napier. Yesterday I rode Napier to Taihape, Mangaweka to Rangiwhatia to Kimbolton to Ashurst, Shannon, Levin and home. Some 1600 kms.

Great ride, great weather other than the cooler and very windy ride through the Manawatu.

However, what got me were the rivers of tar between Napier and Wairoa, on parts of the Waioeka Gorge and on parts of the Napier to Taihape road, especially the Gentle Annie. Roads just melting with tar bleed.

But but but I ask myself - the temperatures on these stretches were no hotter than other parts of the ride, so why all the tar bleed?

[nodrog:Me]

Its that time of the month.

[bogan]

They watered down our dino-distillate just a tad too much in that batch.

[Swoop]

Its that time of the month.

Are you suggesting that we carpet bomb the roads, with tampons?

[Ulsterkiwi]

just had a similar experience on SH43 over the weekend. On the stretch from Taumaranui to the metalled section through the gorge there was a definite sparkle to the road. Was very unpredictable and made us back off the pace quite a bit. Thats ok, ride to the conditions and all.
I am curious though, there are places in this wee world of ours where it gets a lot lot hotter for much more of the time and they can build roads which dont melt, why cant we do that?

[Gremlin]

I am curious though, there are places in this wee world of ours where it gets a lot lot hotter for much more of the time and they can build roads which dont melt, why cant we do that?

Try 50 degrees and the tar still hasn't melted

[HenryDorsetCase]

Rivers of Blood RAAAAAAAAAA \m/

[HenryDorsetCase]

Try 50 degrees and the tar still hasn't melted

thye are made of concrete and unobtanium? is there a prize? do I get it?

[slofox]

I see plenty rivers in these parts too. Of course they are resealing a lot of bits about now - in the hot sun. In my experience, these will have melted in about two weeks and be worse than before.

[buggerit]

bottom of Tapu hill, Coroglen end, looked like a sea of waste oil the other day, safer roads and all that

[Laava]

Yep, that gentle annie has some very wet sections of tar at the moment!

[SPman]

At 45 C in the shade, our roads in back blocks W.A. are fine - I've never seen the dreaded molten tar syndrome over here - what looks like tar bleed on the roads is just volumes of traffic pushing the aggregate down into the seal over 5-10 yrs....and even then the tarry surface doesn't melt in the sun.........

Put it down to the "cheapest will do, quick and nasty" mentality, beloved of officialdom and contractors in NZ.

[BlackSheepLogic]

But but but I ask myself - the temperatures on these stretches were no hotter than other parts of the ride, so why all the tar bleed?

Lowest bid wins. If the cheapest guy's busy someone better got the job.

[Ocean1]

They watered down our dino-distillate just a tad too much in that batch.

Probably. If it's cut with kero you can put a much thinner layer down.

Cheap bastards. Complaint to the relevant authority is the "correct" approach.

Maybe we need a taxpayer's road fault reporting web site...

[bogan]

Probably. If it's cut with kero you can put a much thinner layer down.

Cheap bastards. Complaint to the relevant authority is the "correct" approach.

Maybe we need a taxpayer's road fault reporting web site...

Yeh it's fucking atrocious, they just threw gravel at my street (resurfacing is much to generous a term) ; corugations and bumps right from the start. At least there is so much loose gravel tar bleed isn't a problem