There is this pothole in Qurtoba that I pass over when leaving my friend’s place and it’s been like that for three years, maybe longer. I usually tease my friend on it and ask them when they’re planning to fix it or that they should bring it up in the next town meeting ala Parks & Recreation. Then yesterday while I came across a post on @q8needsyou about the pothole because it turns out someone living on that street (not my friend) decided to finally fix the pothole themselves.
If a huge pothole on a prime street in a nice Kuwaiti neighborhood like Qurtoba isn’t getting fixed, you can imagine the state of the roads in other less nice areas like Salwa or Salmiya. This has got me thinking that maybe I should just fix the potholes that bother me myself as well. There are two construction sites on my street and I’m sure I can just pay a worker to go around filling up potholes in the neighborhood with concrete. But maybe someone needs to start a pothole-filling business. Customers would WhatsApp the location of the potholes, they then get a payment link and within 24hours of paying, someone will go fill up the pothole. Easy-peasy so please steal this idea and then get in touch with me!
29 replies on “Fix your own pothole”
Filling degraded asphalt with concrete? that will make things worse in a few days
it should last a year or two, better than having a hole!
Mark, Cement concrete do not bind well with bitumen. Even with concrete repairs, you do have to get right mix, compact and cure it well (sorry for technical jargons). Just after single shower, the concrete road will wash away, or even more it will result in loose debris, creating another hazard.
Doesn’t the concrete take at least 24 hours to dry? are they going to put up signs and block a part of the road because im sure thats illegal if you do it as an individual with no connection with the gov. (but its possible they don’t give a shit anyway lol)
you don’t have to block the whole road, you can just put a little sign or bucket to divert traffic around cement till it dries.
Depends. You`ll find fast setting concrete and slow setting one, depends on the mix design and admixture(s) used.
You`ll also find pre-packed Magnesium Phosphate Cement based repair products that set in 4 hrs with a 7 days strength.
Also you can get products like QUIKRETE® High Performance Blacktop Repair that will help you repair potholes in asphalt.
Like @KJM mentioned above, you don`t really plug the asphalt with concrete, will fly off very fast.
Unfortunately, concrete or cement won’t last a year, barely a few months as the quick concrete mix properties do not withstand constant movement or the forces applied to it.
And if the underlying issue is something beneath the asphalt, it needs to be remedied.
But as a temporary fix, I thank anyone who takes it upon themselves honestly to do it. Although it is not advised.
“Things to do in Kuwait this Weekend”
1) Fix 8 pot holes @
2) Fix pot holes…
Lol exactly just like beach clean ups!
Your post raises a number of questions…
In such a wealthy country, why do street pot holes exists for such a long time (?)
Street Pot Holes will happen.
The question is … what is the rule in terms of how and when should it be covered (?)
IF, base on the post, said Street Pot Holes have existed for years now…then perhaps
The street was designed to have them(?)
Or
The length of time it has been left as is, is within the guidelines of street maintenance (?)
Or
Somebody is not doing their job (?)
Just wondering.
The country is poor. All it has is money.
Lol you nailed it right. Money means nothing when the mindset is lacking… what is the world I am looking for.
You see the puddle of water behind the workers in the photo? That water is from somewhere, most likely each house is washing their cars or watering their gardens and the excess water just finds the weakest link in the asphalt. Thus creating said potholes over time even after fresh roads have been paved.
The funny thing is that it’s actually illegal to make repairs to the roads….
FYI, the US also has a lot of money. They have been printing during COVID and now we have an inflation crisis on our hand which literally makes any paper money on this planet worth less (repeat loosing value day by day) and that is why real assets is the only way to maintain any value.
This street is the worst 😠
I should call مختار قرطبة to do something.
Lived in salwa for many years, when ever we had a pothole on our street, our haras had this number he called, and boom! Ministry is there the next day with a crew and asphalt truck filling up the hole. This was in salwa block 12 street 4
looks like the ministry of public works doing maintenance and has a contract for each governorates. al-Rawda has brand new asphalt in almost all the streets.
arabic link: https://www.mpw.gov.kw/sites/ar/Pages/InformationalServices/Projects.aspx?ProjectType=3
couldn’t find the same contacts in the english page.
Someone is trying to do something at least. If it works for a while, great! If it doesn’t, no harm in trying. This post could alert the actual job-doers to get these pot holes fixed (best case scenario).
Where’s Ahmad’s comment? 😀
I remember reading an article once, it was outside Kuwait where someone was so frustrated with the potholes and no one was doing anything about it, so the guy started spray painting rude body parts on the roads around the potholes. The roads authority found that so offensive so went around fixing the potholes 😂 just an idea, don’t get caught!
Google image search ‘wanksy’ for inspiration
looooooooooool, ITS a hectic monday morning, im drowning in files, this made me die of laughter, thank you for the information.
Fill it with rubber crumb/pellets, a little fire, voila.
barbeque time yuppy
You call Salwa and Salmiya less nice, I wonder what will Farwaniya and Jleek Al Shuwokh be?
Interesting to get the perspective of the civil engineers in this thread. I live in Rumaithiya, and here they have scraped the asphalt off the main street in my block and left it like that since about 3 months now.
I was wondering if anyone knew how long do they usually leave the road that way before resurfacing it?
Ace sells quick curing asphalt for situations like these.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=149886109108076
An initiative in Lebanon a few years ago by MTV Lebanon TV station, where you purchased a nice asphalt pothole repair machine and started fixing potholes in Lebanon. They even developed an app where you could tag the location of any pothole. Like everything there unfortunately it did not last long. Maybe someone in charge in Kuwait can just copy the entire concept.