Stoke-on-Trent City Council is on the right road with the JCB Pothole Pro. Construction Plant News Editor, Lee Jones speaks to James Harper about the machine’s considerable benefits.
They are the scourge of motorists and represent a real danger to road users, but now JCB is arming contractors with a new weapon in the battle against potholes. Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s James Harper is an enthusiastic advocate for the concept and, since his local authority took delivery of the manufacturer’s Pothole Pro in July 2021, the unit has repaired 147 patches and counting in just 130 days, which represents an impressive total of 10,114 sq metres across the city in total. To put that into perspective, using traditional methods, it is estimated that the same amount of work would take at least 1,040 days.
Based on the manufacturer’s Hydradig wheeled excavator, this three in one machine can cut, crop and clean, all from the comfort of the cab. It combines a three-piece boom, Steelwrist tiltrotator, planer, brush, bucket and 400mm cropping tool. The unit delivers more than enough power to that 600mm planer to comfortably cut down to a maximum of 170mm, and the hydraulic depth adjustment means you can be assured it’s achieving the level set. It self-levels, regardless of the gradient, and can plane against the roadside kerb. Utilising the 1,200mm sweeper collector with dust suppression, material can then be easily gathered up and dumped into a waiting tipper truck. The built-in 400mm cropping tool then crops the patch where required, eliminating HAVS.
James reveals how the JCB Pothole Pro has transformed their working practices: “Previously we were breaking by hand, hiring in a backhoe with a ditching bucket, and using a mini excavator. Pneumatic hammers are brutal on the end user, and there will always be hand/arm vibration issues (HAVS). Not only that but the accuracy is just not there, which means you’re removing far more material than you need to, creating unnecessary waste and resulting in more aggregate being required, with increased vehicle movements to take the spoil away. The JCB Pothole Pro eliminates all of those issues and delivers a finish that is far superior to anything we’ve been able to produce previously. We can now be far more precise when specifying sub-base and know exactly what we’ll need for any given job. Put simply, it’s a consistent and permanent repair, achieved in a fraction of the time.” In fact, JCB’s own figures suggest that a typical pot hole repair can be achieved in as little as eight minutes, with no specialist equipment, or labour intensive preparation.
Not only are there clear benefits for the contractor but there are also gains to be made for road users and local residents, as James explains: “Because we’re completing the work so much quicker it reduces the level of disruption on the road network, and the general noise and inconvenience in a neighbourhood, which is great news for the general public.” Indeed, on a 200sq metre patch that the Pothole Pro was working on during our visit, James’s gang would be finished in a single shift, ready to move onto the next job, where previously the same project could take anything up to 20 days to complete.”
The machine’s 4-wheel steer and 360 visibility from the driver’s seat makes it nimble on tight sites, and planer, sweeper and cropping tool can be easily navigated around ironworks. The Stoke-on-Trent City Council gang are using their Pothole Pro night and day on resurfacing schemes ranging from 10 to 500 sq metres, and have significantly reduced the amount of plant required to undertake those works – but its uses don’t stop there. With a loading shovel attached they’re also loading a gritter, whilst with a digging bucket it can achieve any earthmoving requirements that the council workers encounter. Moreover, the Pothole Pro can also achieve a maximum 40kph travel speed.
James and his team undertook two weeks of instruction with Endon-based Operator Training when the Pothole Pro was first purchased and has found the machine to be simple to use. “If you’re coming from a mini excavator or backhoe background, it’s easy enough to pick up,” he concludes. “It really is performing a multitude of tasks and the rewards in terms of time saved are huge.”
