Tarmac and JCB have successfully trialled a brand-new revolutionary pothole fixing machine – in partnership with Rutland County Council.
With the ability to repair a pothole in less than eight minutes, Tarmac’s highway services team carried out a full day of demonstrations with the JCB PotholePro on a 140 square metre patch of asphalt at Ashwell Business Park in Rutland.
The machine allowed the team to cut the defect, crop the edges and clean the hole with one machine – mechanising a job traditionally carried out by hand and reducing the number of people needed on site.
Equipped with a 600-millimetre-wide planer and integrated dust suppression system, the operator can plane a full carriageway from the kerb without repositioning. The kit also comes with a sweeper and hydraulic cropping tool, allowing a uniform hole to be prepared by the operator from the comfort of their cab.
JCB has calculated that the machine can repair up to 250 square metres per day, equivalent to 700 potholes per month, and with a 40 kilometres per hour travel speed, the machine can also rapidly relocate between sites without additional transport costs.
From left to right: David Pegg, Sales Manager for Excavators at JCB, Brian Murphy, Tarmac Highway Services Service Manager, David Moran, Sales Manager for Excavators at JCB.
Councillor, Lucy Stephenson at Rutland County Council said: “We take a very proactive approach to highways maintenance in Rutland and invest a lot of time and resources in preventative measures like surface dressing, patching and pothole repairs, that keep our roads in a good condition. It’s been really interesting to see what this new machine can do and if it’s something that may be able to help us with our highway maintenance operations in the future.”
Peter Hyde, director of highway services at Tarmac said: “Introducing and trialling new technologies and innovations is a key part of our commitment to boosting efficiencies and supporting local authorities with effective maintenance of their networks.
“We’re pleased to say the JCB PotholePro proved to be a great success in Rutland. The machine is an effective solution in keeping the road network moving by filling a pothole in a quarter of the time it would take using traditional methods improving both the overall productivity of our teams on site, and reducing the impact of essential maintenance works on the travelling public.”
JCB PotholePro Product Specialist Ben Rawding said: “It’s been a hugely successful trial in Rutland and I’m confident that everyone involved got to see just how effective the JCB PotholePro is at fixing potholes permanently and at half the cost of current solutions.
“Potholes are a huge concern for councils all over the country and one of the issues with repairs at the moment is that in most cases they are only short-term fixes – and that’s where the JCB PotholePro differs.
“Just like when you have a filling, the dentist has to carefully remove all the decay so your tooth can be filled properly without recurrence of pain. It’s just the same with a pothole: it needs to be prepared properly so the pothole doesn’t open up again within weeks. That’s exactly what the JCB PotholePro does; it cuts, crops and cleans the hole so a permanent repair can be carried out.”
As part of an ongoing contract with the County Council, Tarmac delivers integrated highways services for Rutland, including the upkeep and resurfacing of the county’s 325 miles of roads and pavements, as well as gritting, road signs, gulley cleaning, street lighting and winter maintenance.
Further demonstrations will also be taking place in Norfolk to trial the machine in both rural and urban areas.
