JCB has brought its revolutionary PotholePro machine to Northern Ireland for the first time; launched last year, it can repair a pothole in less than eight minutes – four times quicker than standard methods and at half the cost of current solutions.
The Northern Ireland demonstrations follow a 22,000-mile tour across England, Wales and Scotland in 2021 and comes after more than 85,000 defects were recorded on Northern Ireland’s roads in the aftermath of last winter.
The PotholePro’s development has been led by JCB Chairman Lord Bamford. “Potholes are a blight on our nation and the solution we’ve developed offers a quick and permanent fix. Changing the long-established ways of road repair takes time, but I’m pleased that councils across the UK are now starting to see the benefits of the JCB PotholePro, which is exceeding expectations in speed and productivity.”
Last year Stoke-on-Trent City Council became the first authority in the UK to invest in the PotholePro machine, since then it’s repaired a staggering 10,000m² of road in just over four months – an area equivalent to eight Olympic sized swimming pools. Using traditional methods, this task would have taken almost three years.
We caught up with the PotholePro on the Derrywilligan Road in Newry and comments Dennison JCB Sales Manager, Ian Calderwood: “We are excited to see the PotholePro in operation and to gauge the reaction and level of interest from some of our potential customers. It’s great to think that Dennison JCB could be indirectly involved in improving the driving conditions for many of Northern Ireland’s motoring population!
“We are already big fans of the JCB Hydradig with its class leading safety, operator comfort, versatility, and overall visual impact. Adding the revolutionary PotholePro to the range will offer further opportunities and benefits to our customers.”
The PotholePro 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 pothole gangs and delivering up to a 50 per cent cut in daily costs.
Councils get a request to fix a pothole every 46 seconds and millions of pounds have been paid out in compensation to drivers for vehicle damage caused by potholes.
