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Potty Patrol: How JCB is speeding up pothole repair Car News

As the name suggests, its job is to repair potholes. The operator rotates the cab so that both sets of tools are on the same side. First, the metal teeth of the 600mm wide planer claw cut through the surface of the broken road, shattering it into loose chips as water is sprayed to remove dust. The multitool at the end of the extendable arm then swings a few degrees to engage the powerful cropping tool, which cleans the edges of the hole. Finally, the brush, which is part of the same multitool, sweeps debris into a built-in collection bucket for disposal in a standby truck (chips can be recycled). Pothole now cut, trimmed and cleaned up, the reclamation team can get to work filling it up and sealing it with bitumen.

JCB claims that unlike other pothole repair solutions, the one provided by the Pothole Pro is permanent. In terms of highways, that means around five years. I have seen other solutions, most recently a modified Archway Roadmaster designed truck that blows compressed air into the pothole to remove debris before spraying a mixture of bitumen and aggregate into it via a long “trunk” which extends above the cabin. The company calls it the “spray injection patch”. It is intended for potholes that have recently formed and can be nipped in the bud.

Whether new or long lasting, potholes are a national problem. The Asphalt Industry Alliance estimates their repair over the next 10 years will cost £ 10 billion. The RAC reported that in the first three months of this year, it received almost 5,000 calls from vehicles with wheels or suspension damaged by potholes – three times the number it has received in the last three months of 2020 motorists over £ 8million in compensation for damaged cars. And the Institute of Advanced Motorists says 75% of drivers see potholes as a bigger problem than three years ago – one that goes beyond driver distraction and congestion. In their defense, the councils said they fixed 1.7million potholes last year, an increase of 200,000 from 2019, at a cost of £ 93.6million. Last year the government pledged to give them £ 2.5 billion over five years to fix potholes.

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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-07-17 05:01:24

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