Massive A6 Irthlingborough pothole finally fixed after temporary repair collapsed live on social media

The deep pothole in Station Road on the River Nene bridge close to Chowns Mill is believed to have caused tyres on at least six cars to burst on January 4.

Northants Police closed the road to enable temporary repair of the southbound carriageway, but four days later the fix in the offending pothole had broken.

By 10am on Wednesday (January 8), a road crew from North Northants Council’s highways contractor, Kier Highways Solutions, had stopped the traffic to effect a repair.

After 15 minutes a temporary repair was in place – half an hour later our reporter was on the scene to inspect the repaired pothole.

Crumbling before her eyes, the freshly laid asphalt disintegrated each time a tyre went over the patch.

A decision was made to livestream the collapsing repair to enable residents to see for themselves the failing repair over more than an hour.

Notification of the pothole’s re-emergence was made via NNC’s Fix My Street by the Northants Telegraph.

The next day, (Thursday, January 9), a crew was sent to make a complete repair of the stretch of road eliciting an acknowledgement from the highways team.

On Friday, our reporter returned to the scene to once again inspect the road.

She said: “It was excellent. All the debris from the crumbling potholes that had been previously left on the pavement and in the gutter had been removed. The potholed surface was repaired with even the white line restored. I was impressed at the quality of the work that could be achieved despite the very deep frost.”

At every point in the pothole saga, North Northants Council has been contacted for a comment.

In September 2022, Kier began its £30m-a-year highway maintenance contract for NNC to maintain the authority’s road network for up to 14 years.

The contract promised to put ‘the priorities of the council and community at its heart’ with pothole repairs, vegetation clearance, sign cleaning, road marking renewal, and drainage investigation among other maintenance.

Cllr Matt Binley, NNC executive member for highways, travel and assets, had said the contract was very much designed towards ‘achieving value for money for residents through quality performance’.

He added: “A fit-for-purpose highways contract is essential in the delivery of so many of our services and vital to every single resident that uses the network, whether for work, leisure or day-to-day journeys."

As a result of the reaction to the livestream, the Northants Telegraph has launched Pothole Patrol and we would like you to send us your safely obtained photos or videos of the worst potholes where you live.

We would welcome your footage and images but please include information on the time, date and location of the pothole.

Send your Pothole Patrol picture to [email protected].

Potholes can be reported on the Fix My Street section of the North Northants Council website by going to https://highways.northnorthants.gov.uk/