Our cars are getting battered by speed bumps after bungling council workers made them 5CM HIGHER | The Sun
A COMMUNITY have got the hump after bumbling council workers built a speedbump 5CM higher than they should have.
Residents in Norfolk are shredding the undercarriages of their motors when they climb over the mountainous “speed cushion”.
The bump – one-of-four designed to slow down traffic to a new 20mph limit – bulges out the tarmac on South Park Avenue, Norwich.
Paramedic Jason Spivack, 50, who lives opposite the monster, told The Sun Online: “I regularly hear the odd scrape when cars go over it.
“You can see all the evidence of gouges and scrape marks on the top of it which shows how many people get caught out by it.
“It’s a bit ridiculous really. You would think that they should have been able to get it right to begin with."
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Norfolk County Council realised the errors of their ways when locals began to complain – so they checked the height of the bump realised it had been built 4.5cm over the ordered 7.5cm.
It means the speedbump stands at a whopping 12cm.
The council has now ordered its contractors to return and lower the height of the bump which was installed last year.
Ben Haklik, 21, welcomed the move, saying he had been having to take extra care when driving over the bump in his Mercedes GT car with ultra-low customised suspension.
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The barman and warehouse supervisor, who shipped his car in from Hungary, told The Sun Online: “I noticed that this particular bump looked really high, so I knew I had to be careful going over it.
“I have been driving in the centre of the road with one tyre over the top of each of the bumps, so I don’t scrape the bottom of my car.
“My Mrs has a normal Ford Focus RS and she can just sail over the top of it.”
The bumps were installed as part of a £470,000 package of improvements which included widening the street to make it easier for buses to pass each other.
To add insult to injury, the project, which also involved the installation of a zebra crossing was supposed to take nine weeks, but ended up taking two weeks longer.
Council officials say the road will be closed from between 9am and 4pm on Thursday to allow the bump to be replaced by the original contractors at no extra cost to taxpayers.
But they put up a sign giving false information about the closure of the road, saying it would take place on the non-existent date of September 31 instead of August 31.
BLAZING ROW
The area’s Liberal Democrat councillor Judith Lubbock spotted the error while out on her bicycle and used a black marker pen to turn the date of 31/09/22 into 31/08/22.
She was caught defacing the sign by county council highways staff when they arrived at the same time by chance with a new a number “8” for August to replace the number “9”.
Mrs Lubbock was involved in a blazing row with them as she insisted she was justified in correcting the sign because it could confuse local people, especially pensioners.
She said: “I explained why I was doing it and they said, ‘Have you ever made a mistake?’"
Mrs Lubbock said that no residents had complained to her about the speed bump being too high, and she had thought the work to replace it was unnecessary.
But on examining the gouges on the bump, she changed her mind and conceded that the work needed to be done.
Brian Watkins, the Liberal Democrat county councillor for Eaton ward, said: “This should not have been allowed to happen."
Security guard Charlene Peruzzi, 41, who lives in the road said: “The road was closed for weeks on end when they did all these improvements.
“To be honest, the council spent a fortune, but it has not really made a lot of difference because people still speed down here."
A spokesperson for Norfolk County Council said: “Earlier this year we received a report of an issue with a speed cushion located on South Park Avenue between Buckingham Rd and Colman Road, near the post-box.
“This was investigated by the area highway technician who found some damage to the surface of this speed cushion.
“On further inspection, it was discovered that the cushion was higher than the design specification.
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“This cushion will therefore be removed and replaced on Wednesday 31 August and the costs of this work will be covered by our contractor.
“The works have been scheduled to take place during the summer to avoid disruption to the nearby schools.”
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