…and that’s SURFERS PARADISE down on the sunny GOLD COAST… in QLD, AUSTRALIA.
- Potholes in Paradise
It’s an absolute circus… a bit of rain and ta da… potholes everywhere!
You couldn’t write a better comedy script even if you tried. The City Councillors (bless their souls) are always looking for ways to save money and not paying for proper roads seems to be one way to do it..!
It’s not rocket science but when contractors can bulldoze down a few trees in your neighbourhood one day and you’ll be driving on a brand spanking new tarmac road the next… something has to be amiss.
In other countries it takes a fair few weeks to lay a new road but not in Paradise, we do it in a matter of days. To the naked eye it looks the same, feels the same when you drive on it and hey… it even costs the same.
So why the potholes?
Because the roads are built crap. They’re built too fast and not enough consideration is given to the sub-strata. Here in Paradise everybody wants to live on a canal so we put them in, we alter the natural course of the river and basically upset the drainage patterns in what is essentially a city built on an estuary. So you have to expect a little subsidence here and there.
But not the Council and certainly not the road contractors. Just stick in a road with the minimal amount of sub strata and a wafer thin tarmac skin on top. A few weeks later or if we’re lucky, a few months later the road starts to get the good olde ‘woop de doopies’ – like you’re on a roller coaster – as the soil settles and leaves the road above with dips and troughs. All very exciting if you like white knuckle rides in a theme park BUT this IS NOT a them park, this is just the neighbourhood!
Then the rain comes. This should come as no surprise to anyone one since we live in the cyclone belt with torrential downpours the norm in summer. The rain settles in the troughs and cracks caused by the early subsidence and a few hours of traffic later – you have a pothole. Only a small one mind you but a bit more rain and a few more cars and you have the beauties pictured above!
Never mind, the Council is out in force over the following days and patches up all the potholes, leaving us with a patchwork quilt for a road system – that is until the next rain when it becomes Swiss cheese for a road system!
And the Council wonders why we all drive gas guzzling 4 wheel drives around town… it’s because of the bloody potholes, that’s why!
Tags: potholes