Stoke council takes delivery of first JCB PotholePro machine

Pictured (l-r) are James Harper, Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s team manager of Highways, JCB chairman Lord Bamford and Councillor Daniel Jellyman

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has become the first authority in the UK to take delivery of a new JCB PotholePro machine.

Unveiled earlier this year, JCB says that the machine can repair potholes four times quicker than standard methods. The council of the Staffordshire city has played a key role in testing the new machine.

The new machine was handed over to Deputy Leader Councillor Daniel Jellyman at JCB World Headquarters.

“We’re absolutely delighted to have our own JCB PotholePro,” said Councillor Jellyman. “We’ve been fortunate to help JCB with the development of the machine over the past year, so we’ve been able to test it out extensively on our roads already and be at the forefront of developing new technologies and ways of working to tackle a problem motorists face up and down the country.

“During that time, we’ve been able to fix 7,000 square metres of patches, which is the equivalent of Wembley Stadium’s football pitch. We’ve done that in just 80 days. Using traditional methods this would have taken 758 days, so the work rate and success of this machine speaks for itself,” he said.

The JCB PotholePro machine can repair a pothole in less than eight minutes and at half the cost of current solutions. JCB signed the deal for the new PotholePro with Stoke-on-Trent City Council earlier this year.

The PotholePro project has been led by Lord Bamford, JCB chairman, who handed over the keys to the machine.

“It was great to meet with the council and hear what a positive impact the PotholePro had made on the roads of Stoke-on-Trent,” said Lord Bamford. “Our vision for this machine was to fix Britain’s roads quickly and permanently and this is just what the JCB machine is doing right on our doorstep. I’m delighted with the results.”

The PotholePro can cut the road defect, crop the edges and clean the hole in preparation for the repair. It also has a 600 mm planer with integrated dust suppresion system.