While major road projects to expand the network are both prioritised and well-funded, road repairs are often overlooked and ignored. This issue is not restricted to one country but is an endemic problem for much of the Western world, although it is arguably most acute in the US and in some states in particular.
In the UK, neglect of the road network has been a serious problem over many years. The use of old-fashioned repair methods make the problem worse, with an inefficient use of resources and high levels of waste.
According to figures from JCB, each local authority in the UK has an estimated average backlog of road repairs of £75.1 million. JCB’s figures suggest that the total cost of road repairs required across the network in the UK will cost £12.6 billion and will take nine years to clear the backlog. And it is worth noting that this is a serious issue, with potholes and road defects in general having resulted in 24 fatalities in the UK between 2009 and 2018. In addition, £8.9 million was paid out in compensation in 2021 for damage to vehicles caused by potholes.
JCB’s Ben Rawding explained just why the firm opted to develop its Pothole Pro machine. Based on the versatile JCB HydraDig model, this unit comes with breaker, milling and sweeper attachments. Using the breaker, the machine can remove broken asphalt, with the milling attachment then preparing a flat surface. The sweeper is used finally to remove any remaining loose material, ready for the new asphalt and subsequent compaction.
Rawding said that the firm opted to focus on the preparation task for a pothole repair as this is the most time-consuming portion of a conventional road repair. He added that although the firm considered offering a compaction tool also with the package, it was realised that this task would be better addressed using compaction equipment as it would be more productive for the PotholePro to focus on the preparation task.
Traditional methods to fill potholes cost around £60 each and can take several hours. These also require the use of handheld breakers to prepare the area for a repair, exposing workers to hand arm vibration. By comparison, JCB’s pothole Pro machine can carry out the preparation work in just eight minutes and for just £30. In addition, the site worker will be sitting in the comfort and safety of a machine cab rather than being exposed to the weather.
According to JCB, the PotHole Pro can prepare up to 250m3/day and carry out this work up to 10 times faster than with conventional hand tools. The 600mm-wide milling attachment allows the operator to prepare an area to a depth of around 170mm, sufficient for the vast majority of road surface faults to be addressed.
The 600mm-wide planer attachment mounted on the arm of the machine allows the operator to provide a straight edge around a pothole needing to be repaired. The hitch system allows for full rotation as well as orientation of the cutter. The planer attachment also includes a dust extraction system to help ensure a clean working area.
For those specialist road repair firms handling contracts for local councils, there are options to lease or rent the machines through JCB’s network instead of buying a machine outright. Since maintenance crews started using the PotholePro for repair work in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, the local authority has had success with its road quality and addressing the pothole problem, without a significant increase in maintenance costs according to JCB. The company has had considerable success in selling this model in the UK and is now looking to expand sales to other territories.
Meanwhile, France used to have amongst the best maintained roads in Europe, a situation that has changed as road quality has declined in the country. An estimate suggests that France’s capital Paris had around 31,000 potholes in 2019. If the data is to be believed, the situation is being addressed at least with the city’s budget for road maintenance, more than doubling from €14.8 million in 2018 to €33 million in 2022.
French firm Secmair is part of the Fayat Group and has also developed a novel machine that can deliver fast and efficient pothole patching. Called the Greenswift Sprayer-Gritter Blow Patcher, this truck-mounted unit has a three-section arm located at the front of the vehicle. This offers a wide field of movement in front, and to the sides, of the cab and is said to allow good visibility of the working area being repaired for the driver. Operation of the pothole filling unit is controlled by a multifunction joystick. The firm says that this allows effective and precise control both of the material spraying and arm movement functions. A blower system can be used to blast loose material from the pothole, with the special mix then being sprayed into place afterwards. High productivity is claimed while the machine is also said to offer long-lasting repairs. To further boost its versatility, the machine can also be used as a Synchronous Chipsealer and the firm claims that the unit can deliver high-quality, highly accurate surfacing as well as localised preventative treatments.
The machine has been developed following Secmair’s extensive experience in the market for chipsealing equipment with its binder, sprayers and chip spreaders.
Other machines designed specifically to address pothole repairs include the Jetpatcher and Nu-phalt systems. The former is a proven system first developed in 1987, with over 900 units sold and operated in more than 40 countries around the world. According to the Jetpatcher Corporation, the machine takes approximately two minutes to fix the average size pothole. Using the Jetpatcher, traffic can drive over the repair straight away and this is guaranteed to last a minimum of 12 months.
The firm claims that due to the speed and versatility of the machinery, the process has proved a cost-effective solution with local authorities and municipalities. As a result, customers have been able to increase the number of repairs they can carry out using limited budgets.
Also offered is the novel Nu-phalt Thermal Road Repair System from sister company Nu-phalt Group. This system meets the UK’s spec for ‘standards for highways’ and the series 0900 Nu-phalt unit has obtained the ‘BBA Hapas’ requirement for permanent road repairs.
According to the company, the Nu-phalt Thermal Road Repair System has been proven to reduce costs by up to 40% when compared to conventional pothole repair methods.
