Pothole machine is a game-changer

Three years ago, Scottish Borders Council acquired a JCB Pothole Pro – which costs around £165,000 or can be hired for around £600 a month – amid growing concern at the poor state of the region’s roads.

The Pothole Pro is seen as a way of patching up roads and keeping them safe.

It combines three machines in one and can repair a pothole in less than eight minutes – four times quicker than standard methods and at half the cost of current solutions.

Last year the authority also hired a second Pothole Pro and drafted it into action.

When members of the council’s External Services/Monitoring Group meet next week they will be told that the machine carried out 1,889 repairs between April and the end of December.

The Pothole Pro continues to provide an alternative to traditional patching methods.

It successfully completed patching works on the A703 Peebles to Leadburn, with 442 repairs, the A7 Boundary to Galashiels (297 repairs) and the A6112 Duns to Grantshouse (158 repairs).

As we move through the winter months, the Pothole Pro has again been deployed into our towns and villages.

St Johns Street, Galashiels and both Scott’s Place and Shawburn Drive, Selkirk have been completed to date with further sites programmed for the remaining winter months, weather-permitting.

The total number of repairs completed to date is 1,889, amounting to 14,479m2 of asphalt.

A report approved by John Curry, SBC’s director – Infrastructure & Environment, states: “We believe that the deployment of the Pothole Pro has helped the council meet its obligations to repair the roads in a timely manner, and whilst the Pothole Pro is only one technique and approach to what is an integrated management regime, which we deploy across our roads, it is important as the type, nature of the repair is permanent, which helps make us more efficient, and improve the road user experience, whilst also allowing us to reduce our fleet.”