Friday, November 13, 2015

Szententre bike path being ... patched :-(

These are some of the patches done November 12, 2015 at northern end of Szentendre Bike Path. Work to date covers about 100 meters of the 10 kilometre path.
Looks like I got carried away. From the looks of the ongoing work on the Szentendre bike path, it's not being resurfaced, as I was led to believe, but rather getting a remedial patch job.

Actually, it's not clear what's going on. Yesterday, there was a work crew on the path at the Szentendre end. They told me they were just getting started on a repair of the entire length of the path -- from Szentendre to Budapest. But checking the progress this morning, there were nine patches over a short section of maybe 150 meters, and the work crew was nowhere to be seen. I don't know if this means they'll be back later to continue the work, or if they've already called it good. But even in the best case, it looks like I got way ahead of myself thinking they were doing a resurfacing. It's a patch job, the latest of several that have been done over the years. I'm planning to send a letter to the authority in charge, Magyar Közút Zrt., to clarify their plans.

In the meantime, I documented a few representative cracks and potholes to show just how dire the situation is. Sections of the path are so disintegrated that they're basically being reclaimed by nature. Like in photos of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
This section is about halfway between Budapest and Szentendre just north of the Renault dealership.
Here, the edge of the path has broken off and is gradually sliding into
the ditch along Route 11.
Several years ago, some pavement milling was performed to smooth out some of the more egregious heaves and buckles on the path. Normally, milling is followed by resurfacing, but in this instance, they milled a few spots and disappeared. The result was awful. In some spots, the path had become even worse. Which is saying something.
This is a fun one for the adventurous cyclist. The recommended line of approach here is on the right, about 20 cm from the edge. You can't avoid a bump, but you can cut your losses. 
Mars Rover view of volcanic perturbations.
Hoping the patch crew won't overlook this one.

As bad as this looks, the experience of riding on it is even worse.



4 comments:

Unknown said...

Yes, but weren't those bits of new black asphalt bliss? For the half second it lasted it was sheer pleasure to ride on :-)

Greg Spencer said...

I guess the coming weeks will tell how thorough a job they're going to do. So far, not impressed.

Jerome Simpson said...

Greg, I love your style. Love the captions!!

Unknown said...

It can be dangerous especially for bike riders. OffShoring