Soft in the head

 

In last weeks Weekly Times I had a prominent letter published about foundations and several reasons why our roads are crumbling .

One key reason for the recent spate is that Shires and Public Authorities are now afraid of using chemicals because of all the fearmongering that the legacy media promote .

If you don't grade roadsides organic matter will build up on the edges and wet up the foundations . Again another dirty subject -for boys only ????

Sadly for us STEMS and EECOSTEMS , we are run by failed science fear merchants who worry about everything, decide nothing, fall for anything new -or just pass the problem onto contractors --Just as they did with our rubbish , failed to risk manage and recycle it, and dumped it overseas. Victoria leads the way in planning by the reactive and always too late ( to close the gate !!) old game of NIMBYISM.

One other recent weakness ( the survey and supervision can be shockingly poor ) that's crept in over recent decades is the way size combinations of rock are used as foundations. Some of the" well graded" aggregate that Dad used to build Carter avenue ( proper spec -- go and see it) was under the garage's floor ( from where this concrete piece came from ) Its 100mm minimum . Most roads now are built with 50mm aggregate .

Afraid of road uses who complain about rough surfaces from these bigger sizes and pedantic specs that want the builder to " mix every size "( what ?using a giant cement mixer ) they , unless they are one of the few Shires with economic brains and engineers and staff who build them , they don't use what we used on forest roads --- a simple crusher run through a 75 - 100mm grid( much cheaper and more like the" well graded " mix aimed for )