Drove past what looked like a bomb crater this morning. I've never seen such
a big hole in a major road before that wasn't part of some planned works.
It was the diameter of a tipper truck judging by one parked next to it.

I heard on the news that they might have to replace the tarmac on some of the
rest of the road. Why? It can cope with heavy rain so whats different about
mains water?

B2003

In article , wrote:
Drove past what looked like a bomb crater this morning. I've never seen such
a big hole in a major road before that wasn't part of some planned works.
It was the diameter of a tipper truck judging by one parked next to it.

I heard on the news that they might have to replace the tarmac on some of the
rest of the road. Why? It can cope with heavy rain so whats different about
mains water?

It comes up from under the ground instead of down from above ?

Nick
--
"The Internet, a sort of ersatz counterfeit of real life"
-- Janet Street-Porter, BBC2, 19th March 1996

On Thu, 6 Sep 2012 08:48:23 +0000 (UTC)
Nick Leverton wrote:
In article , wrote:
Drove past what looked like a bomb crater this morning. I've never seen such
a big hole in a major road before that wasn't part of some planned works.
It was the diameter of a tipper truck judging by one parked next to it.

I heard on the news that they might have to replace the tarmac on some of the
rest of the road. Why? It can cope with heavy rain so whats different about
mains water?

It comes up from under the ground instead of down from above ?

Maybe, but if it had done that you would expect to see the tarmac already
lifted off and the whole road closed.

B2003

On 06/09/2012 10:00, d wrote:
On Thu, 6 Sep 2012 08:48:23 +0000 (UTC)
Nick Leverton wrote:
In article , wrote:
Drove past what looked like a bomb crater this morning. I've never seen such
a big hole in a major road before that wasn't part of some planned works.
It was the diameter of a tipper truck judging by one parked next to it.

I heard on the news that they might have to replace the tarmac on some of the
rest of the road. Why? It can cope with heavy rain so whats different about
mains water?

It comes up from under the ground instead of down from above ?

Maybe, but if it had done that you would expect to see the tarmac already
lifted off and the whole road closed.

B2003


The power and volume of the burst has probably undermined and weakened
the tarmac further along the road.

In message , at 08:44:53 on Thu, 6 Sep
2012, d remarked:
I heard on the news that they might have to replace the tarmac on some of the
rest of the road. Why? It can cope with heavy rain so whats different about
mains water?

Water mains are under high pressure (never seen a film of a decapitated
fire hydrant?) and therefore are prone to wash out considerable amounts
of soil under the road, before it eventually collapses into the hole.
--
Roland Perry

On Thu, 6 Sep 2012 10:06:45 +0100
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 08:44:53 on Thu, 6 Sep
2012, d remarked:
I heard on the news that they might have to replace the tarmac on some of the
rest of the road. Why? It can cope with heavy rain so whats different about
mains water?

Water mains are under high pressure (never seen a film of a decapitated
fire hydrant?) and therefore are prone to wash out considerable amounts
of soil under the road, before it eventually collapses into the hole.

Which has already happened. I'm just wondering about the rest of the road
they claim they need to resurface. It seemed happy coping with HGVs this
morning so there can't be much wrong with it. Perhaps they're just erring on
the side of caution.

B2003

The news this evening is that all three lanes will be re-opened tomorrow -
which is more than TfL will say about the A13 at Canning Town where
a lane has been coned off quite unnecessarily all week.