Two specialist lorries have taken to the streets of Shropshire to help tackle the high number of potholes on the county’s roads.
The newly-refurbished Roadmaster vehicles are currently in the Shrewsbury area but will be used across the county in the coming days and weeks.
The vehicles use compressed air to blow water or dirt out of a pothole that needs repairing and then fill it with hot bitumen and chippings. The repair is compacted by a roller and sealed with a layer of surface dressing – meaning a better quality of repair.
Shropshire Council’s new highways contractor Kier have been working flat-out to clear the backlog of potholes in the county.
Kier currently has 35 teams repairing potholes – supported by eight traffic management teams, who help to control traffic while work is carried out.
Over 508 permanent repairs have been carried out across Shropshire since 5 April. The number includes 241 emergency jobs – usually at this time of year there would only be around 60-100 over the same period.
In the past two weeks Kier have used 20 tonnes of pothole repair material to make potholes safe. And in just four days Kier have used 160 tonnes of hot rolled asphalt to make permanent first-time fixes.
Steve Davenport, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for highways and transport, said:
“Believe it or not, I hate potholes as much as anyone and share people’s anger and frustration. I’ve never known things to be so bad, and many of our roads have been in a terrible state over the past few months following the severe winter weather.
“But we’re determined to sort things as soon as we can and, working with Kier, we’re working flat out to treat the exceptionally high number of potholes that have appeared this year.
“Kier have high numbers of people out across the county every day, repairing hundreds of potholes.
“And the arrival of the Roadmasters will make a huge difference and help us to repair potholes more quickly, and with a better quality of repair.
“We’re confident that we’ll soon have tackled the backlog of potholes – but people can still help us by reporting any that they come across.”
To report a pothole go to shropshire.gov.uk/potholes or call 0345 678 9006.
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