Thousands of Plymouth potholes are set to be filled

Thousands of potholes are being filled on Plymouth’s roads as a project to smooth out the city’s bumpy byways gathers pace. Members of the city council’s cabinet committee – meeting on Monday, 10 July – heard that one specialist ‘velocity’ machine was already hard at work filling and covering Plymouth’s potholes, and another had just come on stream.

Cllr Mark Coker (Lab, Devonport) told the committee that in the two years before the current Labour administration was elected in May this year, there had been 5,192 road defects fixed under the Conservative council leadership. Already, since the elections in May, 1,776 holes have been filled. Of those, 1,213 had been tackled by the Velocity machines.

“Compare where we are in two months with where we were in the last two years,” said Cllr Coker. “You can see the substantial effect we are making. I am really proud of what we have done in just eight weeks.”

Council leader Tudor Evans (Lab, Ham) said the work on the potholes had been ‘spectacular’. Having fewer potholes is one of his six key priorities when he took office. The council has also said that potholes within a radius of 10m from a qualifying hole can now be filled at the same time, something the Tories had also campaigned for.

It means highways inspectors will continue to assess potholes based on the current criteria, that they have a qualifying depth of 40mm, but surrounding potholes that don’t quite meet the required levels will also be repaired. In some cases, the whole road may be treated, although this will require a road closure and more lead-in time.

The machine, made by Sunderland-based Velocity UK Ltd, can carry out permanent, durable repairs at a fraction of the cost and, because there’s no excavation, no waste and no heat involved, it creates a significantly lower carbon footprint. It works by using high-velocity air to remove dust and debris and open-up cracks at the bottom of the pothole which are then filled under pressure by cold bitumen emulsion, sealing it and making it water-tight.

An aggregate mix is then fired at high speed through a nozzle, evenly coating the granules with bitumen emulsion and building up a waterproof seal, with no joints. If required, the aggregate mix is compacted with a “wacker plate” and the repair is traffic ready – far faster than by traditional methods, reducing the time needed for traffic disruption.