A new machine dubbed “the pothole killer” is being put through its paces on roads across Perthshire.
The JCB Pothole Pro is here on a 13-week trial with Perth and Kinross Council.
The machine can repair potholes in a fraction of the time it would take a worker to do it manually.
It makes it easier to tackle wear and tear before potholes develop.
And it also adds up to a much-less back-breaking job for the crews doing the repairs.
Councillors visited Rattray on Friday to see the JCB Pothole Pro in action on a residential street.
It has already been trialled at Comrie, and in Perth.
And there are plans to try it out on more rural roads around Dalguise in the coming weeks.
Perth and Kinross Council tackled more than 10,000 potholes last year.
Chiefs will consider the results of the trials before deciding on whether or not to invest in a JCB Pothole Pro for Perth and Kinross.
The machine is said to cost between £165,000-£200,000.
But JCB says it makes for much more efficient, economical and durable repairs.
The company’s marketing material says: “With a typical pothole repaired in eight minutes, the JCB Pothole Pro is up to four times quicker than traditional pothole repair methods, at half the cost of current solutions.
“All you need to do is add the tar.”
Pothole machine made short work of Rattray repair
The JCB Pothole Pro can cut, crop, and clean potholes, and is capable of repairing up to 250 square metres of road each day.
The aim of the trials is to see how it works on the different kinds of roads in Perth and Kinross.
In Rattray, it had the area around a problem pothole cut, swept and ready for tar in under 10 minutes.
The works were noisy, but they were also over more quickly.
Workers said the same job would have taken them at least half an hour manually. But here, they were able to get on with other parts of the operation while the machine was in action.
It would also have involved them digging the road by hand, which can lead to injuries and longer-term problems caused by repeated heavy vibration.
Council leader Grant Laing said this human health and safety factor was another important point in the pothole machine’s favour.
“We know that potholes are an issue for motorists,” he added.
“And this could give us another tool in our tool box for dealing with them.”
Mr Laing said potholes took up a big chunk of the council’s £10m budget for road repairs and resurfacing.
“We repaired around 10,089 potholes last year – 7,981 of them permanently,” he said.
“We hope this machinery will allow us to speed up response times, improve the quality of repairs and help prevent potholes developing in the first place.”
‘We can’t control the weather that leads to potholes’
Economy and infrastructure convener Eric Drysdale, said a number of councils across the UK are already using the machinery .
“We want to be able to repair our roads as speedily and efficiently as we can,” he said.
“We look forward to considering its performance over the coming weeks.
And local councillor Bob Brawn said he was impressed with how quickly the JCB Pothole Pro had got the job done in Rattray.
“There will be advantages and disadvantages,” he said.
“It will be useful in some areas, less so in others.
“But potholes are an issue right across Perth and Kinross,” he added.
“Unfortunately we can’t control the weather, but it was interesting to see how this might help.”
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