Puncture Alley Latest News

Yesterday there was a meeting at Puncture Alley to decide what next steps need to be taken in order to provide a surface that can be confidently cycled upon. Present were; Oxford Travel & Transport, Oxfordshire Countryside, Drayton Construction and HarBUG.

 

The actions agreed upon were:

1. Drayton Construction to contact the quarry that supplied the grit surface treatment. This is to check whether the supplied grit was to specification / faulty batch, also to check whether this grade of grit has caused problems when used on other cycle routes.
2. Oxfordshire Transport to check that the correct grade of grit was specified.
3. Drayton Construction to carry out further remedial works. This will involve an initial sweep followed by a vibrating roller to crush the grit further and then a final sweep. This will be carried out this week (1^st to 5^th Feb 2016).
4. Drayton Construction to liaise with HarBUG and monitor inbound and / or outbound commuter cycles on one day to check for punctures. Drayton Construction agreed to pay for any punctures to be repaired during the monitoring of the path.
   
5. HarBUG to monitor the number of punctures after the remedial works have been carried out. This information is to be passed to Oxfordshire Transport.

If punctures continue to be a problem then the current surface will be removed and made good with a plain Tarmac surface.

1. A new grit surface will be re-applied in the Summer. This is to allow horses to use the path.
2. Oxfordshire Transport to agree with Oxfordshire Countryside a solution for horse riders to temporarily use the grass verge until the new grit surface is applied.

From posts this morning, remedial work has started. I have been to inspect at lunchtime and it seems the mechanical sweep and vibrating roller has improved the surface quite a bit. The path will be hand swept tomorrow. On Thursday and Friday Drayton Construction will have monitors at both ends of the path in the morning and evening to get feedback on the re-worked surface.

Please keep logging any punctures and let the monitors know about any punctures (hopefully none) that you get from tonight onwards. It would also be helpful if you could take photos of flint lodged in the tyres that caused the punctures.