Exasperating Detour Drives One Brit To Build His Own Road
16 replies, posted
[URL="http://www.npr.org/2014/08/09/339020623/exasperating-detour-drives-one-brit-to-build-his-own-road"]NPR Link[/URL]
[quote]
Mike Watts decided to build his own road, along a much shorter route. Then he opened it up to the public, charging about $3.30 a car.
Watts lives in a village between Bath and Bristol. The road that closed once got him to town in eight minutes. He says the 14-mile detour took him an hour and 20 minutes — sometimes longer.
"It was nose-to-tail all along the 14 miles," he says.
Watts says a farmer started letting a few residents bypass the detour through his fields, but then someone discovered what was happening and tweeted that there was a short cut.
"Before [the farmer] knew what was happening, he was having hundreds of cars going through his field," Watts says.
Over a pint at the pub, Watts told the farmer he could build him a road.
"We shook hands there and then, and they built the road within 10 days."[/quote]
That guy is fucking cool.
Clearly a man who grew enough chest hair to make a few hundred wigs.
£2 is a bit much for a road, although I at that price just to build it he doesn't have much of a choice.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;45642506]£2 is a bit much for a road, although I at that price just to build it he doesn't have much of a choice.[/QUOTE]
Well, it did take 10 days of labor and material costs.
[editline]9th August 2014[/editline]
you edited your comment just as i quoted it you sneakster
I bet it saves a lot on petrol
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;45642506]£2 is a bit much for a road, although I at that price just to build it he doesn't have much of a choice.[/QUOTE]
Saves money and man hours over the detour
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;45642506]£2 is a bit much for a road, although I at that price just to build it he doesn't have much of a choice.[/QUOTE]
For the owner to break even he needs to get about 1000 cars a day, to make it worse he's at danger of losing his house if they fail to break even before xmas when the road re opens. The local news had an interview with him last week and he said currently they are not getting enough traffic yet to reach that goal in time (about £300k all in). Hope it does work out cause the guys intentions were to help himself and the people he knows get about, not to actually make money in a profit sense.
[QUOTE=Fr3ddi3;45643590]For the owner to break even he needs to get about 1000 cars a day, to make it worse he's at danger of losing his house if they fail to break even before xmas when the road re opens. The local news had an interview with him last week and he said currently they are not getting enough traffic yet to reach that goal in time (about £300k all in). Hope it does work out cause the guys intentions were to help himself and the people he knows get about, not to actually make money in a profit sense.[/QUOTE]
[quote]The road is close to getting the 150,000 cars it needs to break even, he says.
"I think we're on target to not just cover our costs; we might make a little bit of profit out of it as well," he says. "I've got to tell you, the stress of building a road, if we do make a profit, I think I'm going to deserve it!"[/quote]
Erm...
I got a feeling the council might just turn around and buy the toll road to save having to fix the road that got hammer by the landslide, especially considering how he said they were being very cooperative.
[QUOTE=Reagy;45644627]I got a feeling the council might just turn around and buy the toll road to save having to fix the road that got hammer by the landslide, especially considering how he said they were being very cooperative.[/QUOTE]
I would bet against that happening. I seriously doubt there were any density tests on the base, asphalt, or any kind of real QA/QC going on to ensure that it was built according to regulation. It would end up being a money sink/headache/liability in the long run.
[QUOTE=Silence I Kill You;45644711]I would bet against that happening. I seriously doubt there were any density tests on the base, asphalt, or any kind of real QA/QC going on to ensure that it was built according to regulation. It would end up being a money sink/headache/liability in the long run.[/QUOTE]
So basically like any other british investment.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;45642506]£2 is a bit much for a road, although I at that price just to build it he doesn't have much of a choice.[/QUOTE]
But consider the savings in petrol.
This reminds me of my junior year of high school. My town is built along a state road which runs north and south, and is intersected by two highways which run east and west. During a particularly rainy day, a reckless college student returning from the community college lost control of her car and crashed into a gasoline tanker while both vehicles were on one of the highway overpasses, and the resulting fire was so intense that it melted the concrete. I lived north of the overpass (on the other side of a river which has only one bridge) while the school was south of it.
For several weeks after that, my ride to school was tripled because the bus had to take the onramp west onto the highway, cross a large causeway bridge into a neighboring town, navigate some tight corners, cross the same causeway bridge and then take the exit south to get back on the state road. I read a 700+ page novel during those long rides.
[QUOTE=TestECull;45643955]Erm...[/QUOTE]
Well the reason he went onto the news was to get exposure. It was getting about 600 / 700 a day at that time. So it obviously worked.
