I write in response to Walter Raynolds' (sarcastic? barbed?) apology to residents (Braidwood Times 3 September 2014), about to be impacted upon by his heavy, noisy business.
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I write with bewilderment, because although not exactly an engineer, I was under the impression that heavy trucks have a tendency to break up road surfaces over time and with repetitive use due to fatigue cracking / deformation under pressure etc.
Mr Raynolds' trucks are about the largest and heaviest vehicles that I pull over for (either that, or get flattened around a blind corner) on the Nerriga Road / M92, and so I had always assumed that it was these trucks, and not meteorite showers that gave the road its moonscape appearance well before the due date for fixing.
I had always wondered if, in exchange for this disproportionate impact on our local roads, Mr Raynolds was contributing, financially to their upkeep. After all, a man of his local significance (former Mayor), would surely condemn the impact of the greedy, 'tragedy-of-the-commons' type people who always have their heads in the public trough at the expense of others.
Perhaps I am wrong; perhaps Mr Raynolds has some magic-pudding-equivalent made out of bitumen - perhaps, like a responsible golfer, he patches up the holes he makes as he goes.
That would, after all, be about the only reason why he would have any right whatsoever to complain about the state of our local roads and their maintenance schedule.
Kristy Moyle
Braidwood
17 September 2014