Northamptonshire County Council invests in new machinery for winter highway repairs

Northamptonshire County Council will start the winter phase of its annual extensive highways repair programme this month.

This will involve various treatments including pothole repair, pre-service dress work and sealing cracked services. This will run alongside the reactive maintenance that addresses issues highlighted by routine inspections and reports through Street Doctor.

Both harsh weather and increased heavy usage of roads and footways cause damage to them and make them more susceptible to deterioration as a result of heavy rain, frost and snow.

Northamptonshire County Council has invested in machinery in a bid to provide long-lasting and efficient highway repairs. Earlier this year, two Thermal Road Patching Units started working across the county.

The Roadmaster is the latest road repair vehicle to be added to the fleet. This machinery delivers significantly lower cost per tonne compared to traditional and other velocity patching methods, with a capacity allowing up to seven tonnes per load of chips and two loads of chips per day. This is enough capacity for a full day’s work.

Councillor Jason Smithers, county council cabinet member for highways and place, said: “With less money available to us for repairs we need to make a little go a long way and use innovation to make the public pound stretch further.

“The resultant cost savings and enhanced performance have added enormously to the appeal of the Roadmaster, and the technology has proved to be a less labour intensive and more cost-effective way of repairing roads quickly.”

The Roadmaster is built on an 18-tonne single axle Volvo Truck with an automatic transmission and is fitted with an elongated hopper to store chips and a container to store binder. It also has a hydraulically controlled articulated boom which - when not in use - folds across the front of the truck for safer transport.