A Whitland councillor has said that council offficers are evaluating whether to invest in a pothole-fixing machine to help alleviate issues on roads and streets across the county.<br />The ‘Pothole Pro’ cuts out sections of road around potholes for neater repairs, with manufacturer JCB claiming it works up to four times quicker than traditional methods.<br />County Councillor for Whitland and Henllanfallteg Cllr Sue Allen, said that members of Carmarthenshire County Council were this month given a demonstration of the ‘Pothole Pro’ in action.<br />As part of the council’s Place Sustainability and Climate change scrutiny committee, councillors attended the demonstration of the pothole JCB device. <br />“Council officers are doing their sums now to see if it will be worth the investment to maintain the roads. We will probably have a report in the near future,” she shared on social media.<br />“For any experts out there I hope you will please correct me if my description is not spot on. <br />“A bit of background on potholes is that water/ice makes them worse so sometimes as a shorter term measure tar and chippings are placed as a surface dressing to seal/protect the road until such time as it can be planed/scraped away and a new layer of tarmac laid. Drivers have to go slowly until it settles.<br />“Individual potholes can be filled as an emergency measure with a bit of tarmac/chipping stuff and squashed down but this may not last so long. <br />“The ideal way is to dig out an area larger than the pothole and ensure the edges are vertical i.e. at 90 degrees to the pothole. <br />“The area needs to be clean and have nice crisp edges. Hot tarmac (60 degrees) is then laid and squashed down with a heavy roller. It is hard work drilling away at the road and using pneumatic devices to get a straight edge. <br />“Vibrations from this work can affect operators and some can suffer from white finger. <br />“The new machine manufactured in Wales is called a Pothole Pro and is a JCB with a big arm on it,” continued Cllr Allen.<br />The functions on the arm are as follows: <br />• A sort of rotating drum that grinds away the road surface<br />• A big hoover and sweeper that sucks up all the bits and sprays with water to keep down any dust (bits are deposited into a lorry and recycled)<br />• A blade type device that chops the edges tidily to make a good join (this sharp 90 degree edge contributes to the longevity of the repaired pothole)<br />A programme of works to repair thousands of potholes on some of Wales’ major roads was given the green light back before the summer.<br />Since 2021 the Welsh Government has spent more than £81m on resurfacing around 321km of roads on the trunk network across Wales. <br />Combined with the forecasted spend for 2025-26 this means that by the end of this Senedd term £118m will have been spent to repair more than 500km of roads that connect our communities.<br />
