top this bikers!
UK's biggest pothole found
A pothole measuring an amazing 200 feet long and four feet wide has opened up on a Gloucester street.

The pothole, believed to be the UK's biggest, stretches the entire length of King's Carton Street and is causing havoc for local residents.

It is four inches deep in parts and covers the on street parking area, posing a significant risk of damage to cars parked there. Residents have called the local council to complain on numerous occasions.

Gloucester Highways says it will not repair the damage until the start of the next financial year, which means April at the earliest.

Gloucester County Council's policy is to fix any pothole more than 30cm wide and 4cm deep within one day. This one clearly fits the bill, but the council is currently struggling to cope with a backlog of road repairs estimated at £90 million.

The mega pothole doesn't just pose a danger to car drivers, though. Sylvia Davis, 76, fell when the shopping trolley she was pulling got caught in the pothole. She's lived in the street all her life and says she's never seen the road in such bad condition.

Councillor Stan Waddington said: "I would ask residents to be patient with us as we are still dealing with the backlog of repairs resulting from the bad weather we experienced at the end of 2010.

"Our teams at Gloucestershire Highways are working very hard to inspect the network and keep it safe for residents, fixing the worst defects on the main roads first before moving on to the urban and rural areas."
[i]

And this is exactly why I am waiting for another week before taking the bike on the road.
I have to admit that I now start the bike every 2 days to be certain that it's ready when the day will come.

I was riding in southern Mexico back in '96 and rode over a crest in the road to discover a pothole that had literally wiped out one of the two lanes in my direction of travel. I should have taken a photo. There was one measly orange highway cone marking the spot that would have easily swallowed a bus, no dramas. It was a sinkhole and up the road at the next town the shop keeper told me it had been there for a week. There was no sign of anyone in a hurry to 'patch' it up. One of the reasons I never rode at night.

for many years in the late 70s and early 80s ...road works were in progress from the mid north coast town in nsw "taree" where they attempted to lay concrete ...well let me tell you i travelled that road for years ..it seemed and there was never any progress that i could see .

they were attempting to lay concrete on the flood plain ....cept it never seemed to fine up long enough for them to get the job done ,,,i have this image of many layers of concrete that had slipped further into the mud ...so they layed another one right over the top .......lol

the total distance must have been several kilometers and i always seemed to cop a rough gravel bypass right alongside the road works and those potholes were awesome.

that is untill they took it out of the hands of the local council and gave it to the "A" Team " ..a dedicated bunch.."go get em roughnutts " that worked for the state "department of main roads"
miraculously after a month or two ....all those roadside camps machinery and bypasses were gone ...and a beutifull piece of concrete engineering was experienced with nice new lines and all .

funny thing is they bypassed it completely with a new road and bridges , many killometers to the south east some years later