DIY Cycle path maintenance

[DavidS]

Shock, Horror. The Council just emailed me back after like not hearing from them in 6 months saying they have completed the finance request and will seal the small section I requested to be done in early 2016. Wow didn't see that coming.

They might be dealing with just too many emails. I know when it is busy at my work I just don't get to them and sometimes do end up answering a few months later as emails get buried under the weight of more emails. Also a symptom of trying to reduce the number of emails going around, you don't answer the email until you have a solution and that can literally take months. At certain points of the year I can get over 100 a day and I have plenty of other things to do.

DS

[bychosis]

Our council gets over 10,000 service requests each year just for the construction and maintenance division, there are plenty more for other divisions. Each service request is allocated a response time, a fairly generous one. There is usually around 1,000-1500 overdue at any time. I put one in a couple of days ago to prune some shrubs for sight distance on a local intersection. Within 48hrs it had been inspected and work scheduled for between four and six weeks. We've had pretty good response from our requests, and usually the work is done in a timely manner. Factors like danger, cost, ease come into play in how long it takes to get fixed.

[redsonic]

I'd have to say I am impressed with Brisbane city council's response to maintenance requests. I contact them often and they are usually quite quick to respond.
My one encounter with Redland council (a huge tree branch plus a car bumper bar on the road shoulder of a 90kph section - not something I could DIY) resulted in a call back a week (!) later whereby I was quizzed closely as to the location of said debris before it was decided that the hazard was just outside their council boundary and therefore none of their concern.

[anthonyo]

Think it was around the early 90's I started commuting to work, The shared path had an incredible number of hazards that were hard to see at night. E.g. at each road crossing there were brown posts in the middle of the path to stop cars driving on to the path. There were gutters, offset bridges and even a huge rock as a plaque right in the middle of the path. The rider was supposed to jump to the right to cross the bridge . This is primarily along the Gardner's creek path. It was like "What on earth were they thinking?".

I considered each obstacle that might be a danger in the case of night and rain or fog. Then, one day I nailed or glued reflectors to everything that was hard to see. When I moved to Moonee Ponds, I glued reflectors to things like posts and bridge bases that jutted out near the path.

The Moonee Ponds council later painted the bridge bases a bright colour and added some good reflectors. This Council is showing some good signs. They recently added concrete "strips" to smooth out the gutters where the pedestrian cross. Think it is for the people is wheel chairs and mobility scooters but also gives my shopping trolley a smooth ride.

This discussion has opened more ideas. I haven't complained about anything in recent years to the Council. Might send some letters and, if nothing happens, later do some landscaping and pruning.

[bychosis]

I haven't complained about anything in recent years to the Council. Might send some letters and, if nothing happens, later do some landscaping and pruning.

Not necessary to 'complain' to council in most cases, but they probably welcome some feedback on how they can improve their infrastructure, or to hear from you about a safety issue.

If I can remember what I saw this morning, I'll pop over and let them know about an issue now via email. Ahh, that's it... Off to the council website.

[outnabike]

I'm in Vic and had an occasion to dob in a bit of bad path which was broken along the joint and actually created a 25 mm up-stand ramp. Not bad going over it one way and a hell of a bump the other.
I took a pic, nominated the position exactly on google map, and sent it in to the council. Telling them it posed a risk to cyclists.

Within two weeks it was chipped away and filled with bitumen. I wrote a thank you note for their trouble.

[Lurkin]

Interesting. Repairs have recently been made to the St George bike path with bitumen.

Would it kill them to make it flat? Back in the days I assisted with a few roading repairs. The boss at the time insisted on it being relatively seamless to the rest of the road.... totally achievable. The turkeys doing these repairs have left behind nothing of the like....

[WhingingPom]

Interesting. Repairs have recently been made to the St George bike path with bitumen.

Would it kill them to make it flat? Back in the days I assisted with a few roading repairs. The boss at the time insisted on it being relatively seamless to the rest of the road.... totally achievable. The turkeys doing these repairs have left behind nothing of the like....

The path runs above some Melbourne Water infrastructure which is due to be torn up in the foreseeable future (aka sometime in the next decade). I'm guessing that any repairs at the moment are "good enough" to stop whoever's responsible for the path from being sued and nothing more. Allegedly, a number of the problems with the current path will be fixed when it's rebuilt after the water main replacement.

[RyanA]

Did some path maintenance on my way in this morning. The strong winds on Monday brought down a number of branches across the path, one of which was fully blocking it. A sharp pruning saw made light work of it, clearing half the path. At least I can ride through now without dismounting; hopefully the council finish the job soon.

[tgdavies]

I've been irritated by the drifts of pine needles(?) on the Anzac Bridge shared path for a few weeks, so I reported them to RMS on the 17th and this Tuesday they were gone!

Coincidence? I think not

[eldavo]

Did some path maintenance on my way in this morning. The strong winds on Monday brought down a number of branches across the path, one of which was fully blocking it. A sharp pruning saw made light work of it, clearing half the path. At least I can ride through now without dismounting; hopefully the council finish the job soon.

Aha, a legitimate need to add my wood saw and long handle hatchet to the bike! In addition to the short handle and sharp blade knife for general shelter squatter/tent purposes.