Fuel duty pledge could tackle potholes

8/7/14

By Ian Barnsley

The Coalition could raise another £1 billion to devote on fixing the roads of England and Wales, if it have been to set aside an extra 2p a litre of the fuel duty it receives from the motoring public.

That is the view of the Regional Government Association (LGA), an organisation that represents over 370 regional authorities.

It believes investing the cash would be enough to repair all the potholes on the roads inside the next 10 years.

A current guarantee of millions of pounds of new funding to boost the condition of the road ne2rk is only enough to ‘patch up’; the method, and effectively quick of the money the councils would want to guarantee routes are in a very good situation for years to come, the LGA claims.

£12bn needed to repair road ne2rk

It says England and Wales need to have £12 billion to fully repair the road ne2rk, and the figure has risen by £1.5 billion in the final 12 months.

This is because of years of underfunding and some particularly cold and wet winters in the last couple of years.

The government announced in June that it was pumping an additional £168 million into the nation’;s road infrastructure to make needed repairs, and that the cash would be offered to 148 neighborhood authorities.

This has been described as the largest investment in the roads considering that the 1970s, and the Department for Transport expects the income to repair much more than 3 million potholes and crumbling road surfaces.

‘Roads in disrepair’;

Councils are “trapped in an endless cycle of patching up our deteriorating ne2rk”, according to the chairman of the LGA’;s Economy and Transport Board, Councillor Peter Box.

“Our roads are in such disrepair that it will now take a lot more than a decade and £12 billion to bring them up to scratch,” he said.

“Tackling this ever-increasing national repair bill need to be a priority and the government can do this by injecting an further £1 billion a year into roads upkeep – funded by investing 2 pence a litre from current fuel duty.

“Motorists spend billions to the Treasury every year in fuel duty when they fill up their automobile at the pumps only to then have to drive on roads that are decaying right after decades of underfunding.

“They deserve roads match for the 21st century,” Councillor Box mentioned.

Fuel duty pledge could tackle potholes

Fuel duty pledge could tackle potholes

8/7/14

By Ian Barnsley

The Coalition could raise another £1 billion to commit on fixing the roads of England and Wales, if it were to set aside an extra 2p a litre of the fuel duty it receives from the motoring public.

That is the view of the Nearby Government Association (LGA), an organisation that represents more than 370 local authorities.

It believes investing the money would be enough to repair all the potholes on the roads inside the next 10 years.

A current guarantee of millions of pounds of new funding to enhance the condition of the road ne2rk is only adequate to ‘patch up’; the method, and properly quick of the money the councils would need to guarantee routes are in a very good condition for years to come, the LGA claims.

£12bn necessary to repair road ne2rk

It says England and Wales need to have £12 billion to totally repair the road ne2rk, and the figure has risen by £1.5 billion in the final 12 months.

This is because of years of underfunding and some especially cold and wet winters in the last few years.

The government announced in June that it was pumping an additional £168 million into the nation’;s road infrastructure to make necessary repairs, and that the money would be accessible to 148 nearby authorities.

This has been described as the biggest investment in the roads given that the 1970s, and the Department for Transport expects the cash to repair far more than 3 million potholes and crumbling road surfaces.

‘Roads in disrepair’;

Councils are “trapped in an endless cycle of patching up our deteriorating ne2rk”, according to the chairman of the LGA’;s Economy and Transport Board, Councillor Peter Box.

“Our roads are in such disrepair that it will now take much more than a decade and £12 billion to bring them up to scratch,” he stated.

“Tackling this ever-growing national repair bill must be a priority and the government can do this by injecting an additional £1 billion a year into roads maintenance – funded by investing 2 pence a litre from existing fuel duty.

“Motorists spend billions to the Treasury every single year in fuel duty when they fill up their auto at the pumps only to then have to drive on roads that are decaying following decades of underfunding.

“They deserve roads fit for the 21st century,” Councillor Box stated.

Fuel duty pledge could tackle potholes

Fuel duty repair for potholes?

If you’ve ever driven down a road that’s pitted with potholes – and surely you have – then you will know that it’s annoying.

It can also operate out costly. Professionals reckon potholes are to blame for up to 1 in 10 mechanical failures, costing motorists an estimated £730 million a year.

Bright idea

So how’s this for an notion? The Regional Government Association (LGA), which represents much more than 370 councils in England and Wales, is calling on the government to invest some of the billions it collects in fuel duty back into road maintenance.

Fuel duty

Fuel duty is currently 57.95p a litre and swells the Treasury’s coffers by a whopping £33 billion a year.

There’s no require to increase fuel duty below the LGA’s program. It just desires the government to invest just 2p a litre of duty on road maintenance – around £1 billion a year – which it calculates would render our roads pothole-cost-free by 2025

Road functions

“Our roads are in such disrepair that it will now take a lot more than a decade and £12 billion to bring them up to scratch.”

Cllr Peter Box, chair of the LGA’s Economy and Transport Board, does not mince his words: “Our roads are in such disrepair that it will now take a lot more than a decade and £12 billion to bring them up to scratch. Tackling this ever-increasing national repair bill should be a priority and the Government can do this by injecting an additional £1 billion a year into road maintenance – funded by investing 2p a litre from current fuel duty.

“Motorists spend billions to the Treasury every single year in fuel duty when they fill up their auto at the pumps only to then have to drive on roads that are decaying after decades of underfunding. They deserve roads fit for the 21st century.”

Poor circumstances

Our roads are definitely in a sorry state: virtually 20% of roads in England are classed as in ‘poor’ situation. So perhaps the LGA is onto one thing.

It may well also win the assistance of motorists. A current survey by the RAC identified that 85% of drivers want more funds to be spent on enhancing neighborhood roads.

And let’s not forget that the circumstance is only going to get worse as much more of us jump in the vehicle. The government’s own projections recommend a 40% enhance in nearby visitors by 2040.

Repair backlog

It’s effortless to blame local councils for the pothole issue, but they currently fix about 2 million potholes a year.

But there’s the query of regardless of whether potholes are getting patched or appropriately repaired – and whether or not entirely stretches of road are being brought up to the required common provided contemporary targeted traffic loads.

There’s also the problem of funding. Road upkeep is underfunded by about 55% or £1 billion a year and there is now a £12 billion backlog of road repairs.

So you can realize why councils are struggling to maintain up, especially following the recent harsh winters and year-round wet weather that plays havoc with our roads.

Compensation claims

If all this weren’t poor sufficient, local councils fork out millions in compensation claims due to poor roads – £31 million at the last count in 2103, a 50% improve on 2011.

In other words, councils have to pay compensation claims since they can not spend to repair the potholes.

Is that as ludicrous as it sounds? There must be a far better way to spend taxpayers’ cash.

Rapid fix

The Government not too long ago gave councils a share of a £168 million fund to fix potholes. The Department for Transport also offered an extra £103.5 million to flood-affected councils for road repairs in March.

But it’s hardly enough – and only pays for a swift repair rather than a longer-term answer to our crumbling road ne2rk.

Something clearly has to be completed as it’s not only motorists that finish up in a hole – it’s taxpayers’ income, as well.

Fuel duty repair for potholes?

2015 Ford F-350 Super Duty Power Stroke Diesel V-eight First Drive: Boosted For Greater Grunt

Very first Drive Review

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Big bang.

Ten percent more energy than final year and a solid whump of added torque from the Energy Stroke diesel imply that it’s Ford’s turn to leapfrog its truck-producing competitors to claim “best-in-class” honors for 2015. Even though the blue-oval team is making a lot more important pickup truck news with its aluminum-intensive F-150, in this case we’re talking heavy-duty or, in Ford parlance, “super-duty” light trucks, the F-250, F-350, and F-450.

We climbed into a pair of the revised 2015 F-350 models for brief drives. Each were 4-by-4s wearing the King Ranch badges that denote luxurious trimmings, both in crew-cab/quick-bed spec. 1 was a dual-rear-wheel version wearing that edition’s normal 17-inch wheels shod with Bridgestone tires the other truck had a single wheel on either finish of the rear axle and the optional 20-inch chrome wheels and Michelin light-truck tires. Each have been equipped with the Energy Stroke diesel V-8 and TorqShift 6-speed automatic transmission. Prominent badges reminded us that the rigs would happily burn B20 biodiesel if provided the likelihood.

With only short exposure, our very first impressions were that this year’s far more powerful engine appears remarkably quiet—not as clattery or ever-present as the Cummins diesel-powered HD Ram we drove earlier this year—and that the duallie was, surprisingly, simpler to maneuver and rode better than the single-wheel version. A Ford engineer who was riding shotgun told us the single-wheel model was equipped with an uprated towing package and that its huge wheels and distinct rear-axle and spring setup affected the ride and steering feel.

On the Heavier Side of Light Duty

Each and every truck’s bed was burdened with more than 1000 pounds of weights so it wasn’t actually possible to do a seat-of-the-pants estimation of acceleration, but offered the curb weights, power ratings, and previous encounter, we anticipate these rigs can get to merging velocity with lots of area to spare on a highway ramp. Unladen, zero-to-60-mph times need to be about 8. seconds. Though they’re called one particular-ton trucks, that’s not significantly of a load by contemporary requirements. Ford says that these Power Stroke F-350s, based on gear and trim, can be rated to tow up to 26,700 pounds (or as small as 12,500). The gross combined weight rating can range up to 35,000 pounds. Thoughts you, these are meant for farm and function-website use, though the distinctions in between private-use and industrial cars are blurring. Advertising nomenclature notwithstanding, these pickups are really classed with their half-ton stablemates as light-duty trucks rather than with true medium- or heavy-truck segments exactly where commercial-grade haulers fit.

Ford is not assisting to maintain this distinction, nonetheless, boasting that this second-generation Energy Stroke diesel is essentially an engine so powerful that it’s all but identical to the one employed in the medium-duty F-450. (Ram made equivalent claims on behalf of its Cummins-built 6 last year).

More Squeeze Tends to make Much more Juice

The Power Stroke now uses a bigger turbocharger and redesigned fuel-injector nozzles to make bigger bangs in each and every of the 6.7-liter engine’s 8 cylinders, adding up to a rating of 440 horsepower (up from 400) and 860 lb-ft (versus 800 last year). That neatly tops the figures Ram employed to claim the title as the hardest puncher with its Cummins diesels final year (385 and 850)—and by an even wider margin more than the torque rating GM claims for the Duramax diesels in the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra HD models.

Also with a firm eye on its cross-town rivals, Ford placed a push button on the dash to actuate the exhaust brake. Like these at Ram and GM, the exhaust brake generates back pressure via the turbo to develop drag. Ford claims that in addition to the straightforward one particular-touch actuation, this year’s version also works more successfully.

Dearborn also boasts that it upgraded the interior trim on the King Ranch models for 2015. It looks a bit far better but to our eye didn’t match the quality of components in the Ram and Chevy trucks we’ve sampled not too long ago. The leather, now wearing the King Ranch’s “snake” brand a lot more prominently, looked great but there was significantly less of it and occasionally it was utilized in odd areas, even though inexpensive-searching plastic bits (notably pockets on the console and the inner door panel) felt flimsy. On the a single hand, F-350s in King Ranch trim can run $ 55,000 to $ 70,000 or so and chintzy trim might be off-putting. Nevertheless, buyers in this segment are constantly asking for more capability, Ford claims, so maybe they’ll be prepared to overlook such aspects in favor of boasting the greatest power numbers.

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2015 Ford F-350 Super Duty Power Stroke Diesel V-eight First Drive: Boosted For Greater Grunt