Council spends €700k on high-tech pothole-filling machines

Cork County Council has invested over €700,000 in three new high-tech pothole-filling machines, which will work on maintaining some of the county’s 12,000kms of roads.

The new velocity patchers, as they are called, are far more effective in repairing potholes than the traditional method of a spade and bucket of tar — forced into the hole with a workman’s boot.

Motorists often complain that many potholes are repaired when they are still full of water. And when the first lorry trundles over them, the tar is washed out of the hole.

But that won’t be the case when patching is mechanically completed by the new method.

The driver controls an automated arm at the front of the truck which can completely empty the pothole of water.

It then coats the pothole in bitumen before filling it with a mixer of bitumen and chippings.

The driver also controls a special roller fitted to the truck for compacting the filling material, as well as an automated brush to remove excess chipping when the repair has been completed.

“Recognised both nationally and internationally as the best method of repairing damage to a road surface, these new velocity patchers will greatly aid Cork County Council in maintaining its road network,” a county council spokesman said.

The council purchased the machines, which cost €235,000 each, from Archway Products based at Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim.

It’s the only company in Ireland or Britain which designs and manufactures such machines.

Liam McNamee, its managing director, said they designed a prototype in the late 1990s and started selling them in 2002.

“We broke into the British market the following year and there is still big potential there for us. In the long-term we hope to branch into other European markets,” Mr McNamee said.