BBC Documentaries

Hole in the Road Inspectors (2015x94)

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This year, every motorist will spend several days worth of time sitting in traffic jams caused by roadworks. Thousands more will feel their wheels walloping through potholes which occasionally damage cars. In this film we meet the men whose job it is to control the carnage. In Leeds alone, there are 1,800 miles of roads with 29,000 sets of roadworks a year. Two-and-a-half billion miles are driven on the city's roads every year, contributing to 30,000 potholes a year. Dealing with this are men like Pat Griffin, who has worked for Leeds City Council Highways Department for 22 years. In this time, the department will have patched over half- a-million potholes. You'd think Pat would be sick of the sight of them. Not a bit of it: 'I've got a passion for it,' he says. 'I'm proud. We're on the front line and what we do make a difference.' Neil Carpenter has been a utilities inspector at Leeds highways for 11 years, his department inspecting over one hundred thousand utilities digs in that time. His job involves checking that the utilities digging up our roads have permits for their work and that they're not overstaying their welcome. It's a permanent cat and mouse utilities versus inspectors game on the city's streets. Roadworks and potholes are a favourite national moan, and in this film we hear the exasperated voice of motorists forever stuck at red lights - and we hear from the road crews on whom they frequently vent their ire.