In reply to Chris the Tall:
This "road dressing" really pisses me off, they do such a poor job of it that it's just a menace to all road users. They did a road near me a few weeks back, a 50 mph road 3 lanes wide (2 one way and 1 the other alternating), they did the job at night in the pissing rain and already the surface chippings have worn away to strips of tar in the braking areas of the roundabouts.
The really silly thing is that the road was in generally very good condition with only a few small areas worn, so they've made the road worse!