Heavy lorries good for asphalt roads
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At the present rate, the Institution of Municipal Engineers estimates that it will take 110 years to resurface the nation's minor roads. This is something for which goods vehicles cannot be blamed, because they make little use of minor roads.
In any event, Clive Buckmaster, who has been associated with the asphalt industry for nearly half a century, denied in a letter to a daily paper that heavy lorries caused most of the damage to non-motorway roads. "Experience in the past has demonstrated that wellformulated asphalt surfacing actually improves with heavy traffic," he wrote.
The correct amount of bitumen in the mix is crucial and penny-pinching in construction merely creates bigger bills for maintenance and excessive disruption of traffic.
Perhaps if Clive Buckmaster had been responsible for the 13mile elevated "Spaghetti Junction" between M5 and M6 it would not be falling apart after only 12 years. But relief is to come in the shape of a 26-mile bypass costing £130m on which work is due to start in about six years.
Those enmeshed in the spaghetti can now take heart. Their next of kin have been informed.