Good morning Maniot64. I see you've done your homework. Indeed that is the situation. How long have been living in Greece? Kind regards Stelios
I have been living here 10 yrs now Stelios....I came here to work with Hochtief on the Olympia Odos Corinth Patras road but it didn't pan out as planned! I was a materials testing technician and later consultant in the UK for maybe 30 yrs so things like skid resistance, AAV (aggregate abrasion value) and PSV (polished stone value) are of much interest to me when riding on the very small contact patch of motorcycle tyres! Hence I also have an 2019 MP3 HPE Sport ! (its for sale by the way!).....double the front contact patch and with 110/60 tyres its very noticeable! Quick edit....on way to work near Kambos (on way to Kalamata) 2 hrs ago about 100+ bikers coming the other way! Probably organised Athenian club outing ! I like the ride from here via Gythion up to Sparti then across Langada Pass to Kalamata OR carry on past Sparti on the Laconia Highway to join the Morea highway down to Kalamata then home.... Photo from few years ago....trying to find the one with King Leonidas statue in Sparti!
I worked on Egnatia in Northern Greece and one of the major problems was the viscosity of the Asphalt at the sustained high temperatures and during the winter. It's difficult to have the optimum conditions under such temperature extremes. The other problem as you quite rightly say is the "polishing" effect of the aggregate. I take it you're an expat Brit in Kalamata?
Yep, am from Manchester originally but was living in Northants when we emigrated in 2010. The temperature extremes are high in Greece...in the North even more so perhaps with the lows that can occur. Further south where temps of 45c happen in summer I have often thought that 25 penetration grade bitumen must be used perhaps (?) with polymers for workability etc but yes, come any cold weather laying this then causes problems! You can't then use less viscous mixtures using maybe 100/200pen as come summer it would deform/run away! Must be a difficult balance to achieve! I was here not for materials input but for H&S by the way....
Excellent! A fellow Brit Engineer in Greece. I married a Greek girl and we share our time between Galatsi, Athens and South Wales. We're just waiting for the lockdown to be lifted and we'll be on the next plane; lots of family to meet up with.
Hi Richard, I live in Peristeri in the western suburbs, very close to both motorways. It only takes me 3'to escape. Maniot64, you my friend are the right person to talk about tarmacs. We ( my buddies and me) discuss the issue for many years now, (you cannot imagine the situation 30-40 years ago) and see how much progress we have made. And of course now that most of the motor ways are completed, we choose the old ways. No fun on the new roads. On the other hand I was riding in France about 20 years ago, and what I observed was different tarmacs in different areas. On a German documentary I watched the other day, the engineer stated that they had 17 different tarmacs to apply, depending upon the conditions of the area. Any way, my point of view now , is to watch the beautiful scenery when I find it, and get some spirited riding if conditions allow. With maturity comes wisdom ( they say). LOL Kind regards Stelios
In many ways Stelios the Greek roads are maintained better than the similar minor roads in the UK. The amount of potholes is staggering. OK, there are potholes here but honestly not as many as I expected....locally, they are pretty quickly filled I must say. For years in the UK we laid what is called HRA (Hot Rolled Asphalt) surface layers 35/40/50 mm thick with 20mm high PSV pre-coated (with bitumen) chippings (PCC usually gritstone or similar from small Welsh quarries)....it was an art to lay this well but the grip it provided after being trafficked for a short while was staggering and shed water well. Then 'thin layers' became fashionable largely because of the ability to lay massive tonnages quickly overnight without using chippings using good PSV aggregates and modified bitumens. We also sometimes layed plastic reinforced meshes under the surface layer to prevent reflective cracking and reduce the formation of wheel ruts especially in Lane 1 (the slower lane used by heavy vehicles). In the last couple of years there has been a resurgence in the use of HRAs with PCCs which is nice to see especially for us old timers!! Anyway ....end of my nerdy time!....time for in the beautiful Greek landscape!
