Ok we've all seen the video of the Corkman having a jacuzzi in a pothole. It's our understanding that the famous hole was caused by a burst water main and has since been repaired.
However this year we are seeing terrible damage to our roads. A combination of wet weather and neglect due to road maintainance cutbacks have left many of the country's roads in third world conditions.
Kildare, being a relatively flat county has an extensive network of secondary roads. Combine the aforementioned factors with a busy sand, gravel and cement industry and the result is road damage.
This year we are seeing a huge surge in damage to tyres and wheels as a result of pothole damage.
As pictured above, potholes will often just appear as puddles on the road. The first the motorist knows of it's depth is that horrible clunk on impact as the wheel strikes the pothole's edge.
Even at moderate speed, the result is all too often ''pinch rupture'' which put simply is a sidewall gash caused by the tyre being pinched between the pothole edge and the metal of the car wheel. The result is rapid deflation and immediate unrepairabilty of the tyre. This is often accompanied by wheel damage. Alloy wheels are often buckled or cracked by the impact. The bad news for the motorist on say a 5 Series BMW would be about €600 for a replacement runflat tyre and 17'' Alloy rim. Plus €50 for alignment which is always required after such an impact. All Bad News!!!!
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ROBERT SZMIDOWSKI
The good news is that we have Robert Szmidoski working for us. Robert is Polish has been with us for more than five years. He is a skilled welder and tradesman and puts his hands to repairing almost anything.
Robert has a great success rate at repairing bent or cracked alloys and has saved many of our customers a lot of money with his repairs. This year he has been very busy. Pothole damage is never good news. Robert, however will take some of the pain out of it for our customers.
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