A busy time in the county for the big yellow machine
Continuing with the year-long trial on Lincolnshire’s road network, the JCB Pothole Pro has been busy. The machine is continuing to work on our reactive patching demands, which looks at issues with the road surface that measure between 5m to 30m2.
The trials are being carried out as part of the LCC Highways service with critical data and information about exactly how the Pothole Pro is performing being fed back to officers to compile.
And so far, the emerging figures look like this:
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September: 2,505m² completed / 19 working days / Averaging 132m² per day
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October: 1,404m² completed / 20 working days / Averaging 70m² per day
Jonathan Evans, Head of Highways Client and one of the senior officers who will decide on the viability of the Pothole Pro after the trial period is completed said: “What we are seeing is that the best productivity is achieved when patch sizes are large, or there’s multiple issues on one site or in one area.
“It’s worth also noting that because of the reactive needs of this type of work, each patch can have a different response time so - at times - the JCB Pothole Pro must travel to carry out these jobs, which we’re finding can have an impact on productivity.”
As part of the year-long-trial, LCC Highways has also sent the Pothole Pro to work on drought damage sites that have suffered with long lengths of cracking and surface displacement. The machine’s planing head can be angled horizontally to cut a very defined key into the road surface which, when paired with a surfacing crew to fill in the exposed trench, gives an effective and efficient way to make the road better.
Over a single three-week period, the Pothole Pro completed work at the following locations:
- Week commencing 13 October: Green Street, Great Gonerby, Arnold Avenue, Grantham, Chestnut Avenue, Cranwell, Blyborough Hill, Blyborough, Church Street, Willoughton, Macaulay Drive, Lincoln, Newark Road, North Rauceby, A17 Sleaford Bypass – Layby from Holdingham, Sleaford Road, Leadenham Low Fields, Chapel Road, Sutton St Edmund, Wykes Lane, Donington
- Week commencing 20 October: Westcliffe, Ruskington, C336 A15 to Mareham Lane, Aswardby, access to Fir Tree Farm from Carr Lane, East Stockwith, Northfield Lane, Willoughton, Fishtoft Drove, Frithville Church Road, Old Leake, Occupation Lane, New Bolingbroke, Towell Close, Boston, Wykes Lane, Donington, Cranesgate North – Whaplode St Catherine
- Week commencing 27 October: Howsdale Road, South Cockerington, Stain Lane, Theddlethorpe, Sloothby High Lane, Sloothby, Rochford Crescent, Boston, Tunnard Street, Boston, Carlton Road, Boston, Hither Old Gate, Holbeach, Little Dog Drove, Holbeach, Joys Bank, Holbeach, Gull Bank, Holbeach Lutton Gate Road, Sutton St Edmund, Sluice Road, Holbeach St Marks, Woodhouse Lane, Moulton, Mill Lane, Tydd St Mary
Leader of Lincolnshire County Council, cllr Sean Matthews said: “This is what the trial is all about. To get the JCB Pothole Pro out on the roads of Lincolnshire in a meaningful way so that our Highways officers can assess properly if it’s suitable for what we need to make an improvement to the road network.
“If the machine stays or not is something that the officers will be heavily involved in, and I know that it will be the data that they discover during this trial that will dictate the outcome of the trial when it’s completed.
“For now, in these first months of the Pothole Pro being on our roads, I am pleased to see that it is being put through its paces across a variety of issues that we face in our county. I am looking forward to seeing how the trial progresses.”