JCB’s PotholePro machine has been deployed in Stoke-on-Trent to repair potholes, with promising results.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council has repaired 10,000 square metres of road in 130 days. The city council estimates that this work would have taken 1040 days to complete using traditional methods.
Since becoming the first UK council to use the PotholePro last year, the city council has completed three years of work in just over four months. Other authorities across the UK are now also investing in the machine.
Councillor Daniel Jellyman, cabinet member for Infrastructure, Regeneration and Heritage, said: “We are delighted with the success of the JCB PotholePro and the speed at which it is maintaining the city’s road network. To have completed almost three years of work in just over four months is astounding and speaks volumes for this solution over traditional methods.
“It’s proving so effective across the city that councillors and residents are actively asking for the PotholePro when a highway network issue arises. We are also able to deploy it on a multitude of other tasks and this delivers huge rewards in terms of time saved.”
JCB chairman Lord Bamford said: “Potholes really are a blight on our nation and the solution we have developed with the JCB PotholePro offers a quick and permanent fix.
"Changing the long-established ways local authorities repair roads takes time, but I’m pleased that councils across the UK are now starting to see the real benefits of the JCB PotholePro, which is exceeding expectations with its speed and productivity.”
The PotholePro was unveiled at the beginning of 2021. A number of features, including a cutter, sweeper bucket and a hydraulic cropping tool, allow the machine to cut defects, crop pothole edges and clean holes, which allows it to fill a pothole in less than eight minutes - four times faster than traditional methods.
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As a Price Waterhouse management consultant in the 80s, I was privileged to carry out a brief consultancy for JCB.
It was at a time when Antony Bamford had added computerisation to his production line and the whole operation was the early model that industrial production lines followed in later years.
Tremendous admiration for Baron Bamford, one of Britain's great industrial leaders.
The good news is this device will repair 3yrs work in 4mths
The bad news is 3yrs work equates to a few roads.
Surely the longer a pot hole goes unrepaired, the bigger the damage, and the more it costs to fix. Like Catnip, i like in West Yorkshire, and we NEED a few of these machines around here.
I watched 2 big potholes devolpe next to each other locally, over a number of months. last winter one was fixed by filling with loose tarmac, and letting the cars driving over tamp in down. The other cant have been consifdered bad enough to do. The road was no longer level when they finished. By this winter most of the new tarmac was gone, and both have been refilled this time. I expect they will do it again in the next 18 months.
But we do have lots of speed humps, and cameras, so the councils are clearly not short of money.
Just remember, humps, cameras, and pot holes are a sign of what your local council think of you!