THEY are the scourge of motorists, costing drivers across the UK an estimated £4.09 billion each year in repairs and risking the safety of cyclists.
Now,a British digger maker says it has come up with a solution that will dramatically speed up the time taken to repair potholes and reduce council staffing costs.
JCB has launched the PotholePro, a machine the company claims can repair a pothole in less than eight minutes – four times quicker than standard methods and at half the cost of current solutions.
The company say the speedier repair time is the equivalent of 700 potholes a month.
READ MORE: The £3billion bill for Scotland's pothole neglect
It allows the contractor or local authority to cut the defect, crop the edges and clean the hole with one machine, mechanising jobs traditionally done by a team and delivering up to a 50% cut in costs.
The technology can plane a full carriageway from the kerb, without re-positioning and potholes can be repaired by the operator without leaving the cab. After the repair is carried out, all that is then required is to tar the affected stretch of road.
During trials in Stoke-on-Trent, the machine completed 51 road repair jobs in 20 days, which the city council say would have taken a team of up to six workers 63 days to complete normally. JCB does not state how much the machinery costs.
READ MORE: Why uneven roads and potholes are endangering your health
Figures from the AA reveal more than £11bn-worth of potholes need repairing across UK roads.
Councils get a request to fix a pothole every 46 seconds and more than £8.1 million was paid out in compensation to drivers last year for vehicle damage caused by potholes.
According to the Department for Transport, 397 people have been killed or seriously injured while cycling due to a pothole or other road defect since 2007.
Edmund King OBE, President of the AA said: “The toll of pothole damage on cars is already breathtaking.
“However, as more people take up cycling due to avoiding public transport in the pandemic and if e-scooters are legalised, then sorting our poor road surfaces becomes more important than ever.
“JCB has taken the initiative to fix these problems, and we’re excited to see its new PotholePro take to the streets.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel