Stoke City Council have repaired 10,000 square metres of road from potholes using the latest innovation from JCB - the PotholePro.
The machinery could revolutionise pothole repair in the UK after completing the work in just 130 days, with estimates suggesting the same amount of work would take 1040 days using more traditional methods.
Now more councils are keen to invest in the JCB after seeing three years of work completed in just four months. Stoke City Council have been trialling the machine due to their close proximity to the JCB plant in Staffordshire, with the PotholePro launched in January last year.
The PotholePro looks like a normal JCB digger but is actually an all-in-one solution to the longtime problem that has blighted the British road network for so many years. The machine include a cutter, sweeper bucket and hydraulic cropping tool, all of which allow it to fill a pothole in less than eight minutes - four times faster than a traditional process.
“Potholes really are a blight on our nation and the solution we have developed with the JCB PotholePro offers a quick and permanent fix,” said JCB chairman Lord Bamford.
"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.”
Underfunded councils have struggled to fix potholes in recent years, with investment slashed to £727 million from £1.2 billion just two years ago, and many councils are forced to cancel road works. Those cuts could see approximately 11.5 million holes unfilled over the next year.
But the PotholePro seems to have been cost-effective for the Stoke authority, with local councillor Daniel Jellyman singing its praises, saying: “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.”