Skip to main content

Pothole plan

Potholes are the scourge of commuters and the source of hours of complaining around the office water cooler. In the UK one pothole vigilante, a 72-year-old man, decided one morning to fill one particular pothole after 17 months of complaining to the council. That first pothole job took the man 15 minutes to repair using a friend's tarmac and tools. He reportedly said the hole was so big that a handrail should be put around it to stop people falling into it. He went on to fill 50 more potholes and the counci
February 24, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Potholes are the scourge of commuters and the source of hours of complaining around the office water cooler. In the UK one pothole vigilante, a 72-year-old man, decided one morning to fill one particular pothole after 17 months of complaining to the council. That first pothole job took the man 15 minutes to repair using a friend's tarmac and tools. He reportedly said the hole was so big that a handrail should be put around it to stop people falling into it. He went on to fill 50 more potholes and the council eventually offered him some training and a job.

Meanwhile in Russia, angry commuters decided to embarrass their local officials into action. Some have been planting potatoes in potholes to see if the spuds will grow quicker than the time it takes the local authority to send out a repair team. In another city, activists are naming and shaming local politicians by painting facial caricatures of the mayor and council members around the hole with the hole as the face’s mouth.

Related Content

  • Closer ties with Highways England Collaborative Delivery Framework
    April 13, 2017
    Highways England is reconsidering its procurement to encourage innovation and ultimately deliver more for less. Kristina Smith spoke to client, contractors and material suppliers to find out more. A group of senior managers is being addressed by a local resident who lives close to some proposed road works. The resident is angry, persistent and quite rude. The question is: how will these managers respond?
  • New tunnel Acapulco Bay in Mexico
    May 25, 2016
    Acapulco is to benefit from a new tunnel route to cut congestion. A new road tunnel close to Acapulco Bay will help cut journey times for drivers in this part of Mexico. Both tourists and locals in Acapulco Bay currently experience long journey times at present, with a key problem being congestion on the 12km route from Juan N Alvarez International Airport to the Acapulco Bay beaches. During peak traffic times the journey along the scenic, winding road around the tip of the Cumbres de Llano Largo Mountain t
  • Patch it up with Secmair, Nu-phalt, Jetpatcher
    March 7, 2023
    Old-fashioned repair methods can make a road agency’s pothole problem worse but new technology has come to the rescue.
  • Helsinki's tunnel project
    April 11, 2012
    A novel approach to utilities installation will lengthen the life of Helsinki's streets, reports Mike Woof A major utilities project in Finnish capital Helsinki will offer huge benefits for the city's streets and traffic flow rates in years to come. A new tunnel system is being excavated under Helsinki for the power company Helsingin Energia, although this will be co-owned by the city. Called the Common Utility Tunnel (Meilahti-Pasilak-Käpylä LU2), the excavations form an extensive network spreading out un