LCC Highways has said yes to the Pothole Pro after the impressive kit completed its intensive trial on the county’s roads.
By now a familiar piece of road-fixing machinery to road users across Lincolnshire, the big yellow pothole buster is here to stay. Officers speaking in Monday’s Highways Scrutiny meeting at the council chamber in Lincoln said that the equipment had demonstrated clear benefits in efficiency, safety and service across the county’s road network.
The machine, which is part of the council’s highways contractor Balfour Beatty fleet, was assessed over an eight month period on a wide range of road types. Following the trial, the contractor has confirmed the Pothole Pro will now stay on contract.
During the trial, the Pothole Pro was used for reactive patching jobs ranging from 5m² to 30m². Despite some time lost travelling between sites, the machine exceeded its daily target of 60m², averaging 64m². The machine has completed over 1200 individual jobs across more than 300 locations throughout the County in both urban and rural locations. The officer’s report said that the machine is up to five per cent more efficient than traditional pothole‑repair methods used in the county.
Executive member for Highways at LCC, cllr David East said: “I am delighted that the officers have made this decision about the Pothole Pro based on the hard facts of a strenuous trial.
“As the administrative party for the council, we have not been involved in this trial other than to be the recipients of the data collated by the Highways team. But we have been very clear that the Pothole Pro was something we wanted to try in a proper, meaningful trial to see if there was a benefit to be had for our roads.
“Now it’s clear that there is a benefit, and this will help to continue the work we are putting in to making the Lincolnshire road network better.”
Tom Gifford, LCC’s Client and Contract Manager, reported the findings to councillors saying: “The Pothole Pro has operated very well throughout the trial and that has come about not only through using it in a way more suited to the roads and distances we face covering in our county, but also because of planning and a level of understanding that came about over thetrial.
“This machinery is a very effective delivery mechanism for repairing roads compared with previous equipment and there are further significant health and safety improvements for our crews which greatly reduce personal safety risks during repair works.”
The shorter, nine‑week trial in 2021 focused solely on rural roads and using the Pro was deemed not cost‑effective at the time. This latest county-wide approach taken over the past eight months has provided a more comprehensive evidence base, and using it in this way produced markedly different results.
Jonathan Evans, Head of Highways Client, added that the extended trial had given the council the information it needed to make an informed decision, saying: “We are always looking at new and innovative ways to improve the service we provide.
“This trial has helped us understand where the Pothole Pro can add value, and we will continue to explore further opportunities to enhance our repair methods with other new technologies and strategies in the future.”
The Pothole Pro has also performed well on drought‑damaged roads, using its adjustable planning head to cut clean, horizontal edges into cracked surfaces, enabling surfacing crews to reinstate trenches more efficiently.
