Stoke-on-Trent City Council is celebrating a major milestone in its mission to fix potholes quickly and permanently – after completing almost three years of repairs in just over four months with JCB’s revolutionary PotholePro machine.
The forward-thinking authority has repaired a staggering 10,000m² of road with the JCB PotholePro in just 130 days – an area equivalent to eight Olympic sized swimming pools. Using traditional methods, this task would have taken a staggering 1,040 days or almost three years.
The council became the first in the UK to invest in the PotholePro last year, having trialled the technology in the months before. Other authorities across the UK are now following suit and investing in the machine. The milestone 10,000th square metre of road has just been fixed in Finch Place, Brindley Ford, Stoke-on-Trent by the city council’s highways team.
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 competed almost three years of work in just over four months is astounding and speaks volumes for this solution over traditional methods.”
He continues, “”It’s proving so effective across the city that councillors and residents are actively asking for the PotholePro when a highway network issue arises. Put simply, the JCB PotholePro delivers a consistent and permanent repair in a fraction of the time. We are also able to deploy it on a multitude of other tasks and this delivers huge rewards in terms of time saved.”
The development of the PotholePro has been personally led by JCB Chairman Lord Bamford. He 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.”