When 77-year-old Rod Stewart has to take it upon himself to start fixing roads, you know the nation’s pothole problem has escalated way out of hand.
Last weekend’s viral video showed the tracksuit-clad millionaire Maggie May singer swapping a microphone for a shovel because ‘no-one can be bothered’ to fix the street, which leads to his home in Harlow, Essex.
And Sir Rod’s frustration with the lack of road repairs is one felt by so many of us, with potholes being a major cause of complaint for drivers, cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians.
If only there was an easy, fast and cost-effective way for councils to get our roads straightened out properly. Yet there is.
It’s called the PotholePro and is a bespoke piece of heavy-duty machinery produced by Britain’s JCB that can repair a road in a matter of minutes. For the first time since it launched last year, it has been pitted head-to-head against a traditional ‘road repair gang’ to see how much quicker – and effective – it is.
And This is Money – with a stopwatch in hand – had exclusive access.
Taking matters into his own hands: Sir Rod Stewart got to work last week as he helped fill potholes near his home in Harlow, Essex after claiming ‘no-one can be bothered to do it’
While Sir Rod should be commended for his willingness to get his hands dirty, there is a bespoke machine that can do the job better – and quicker. It’s called the JCB PotholePro. It costs £165,000 and can repair a crater in minutes
Our visit to Stoke-on-Trent, close to JCB’s head office in Uttoxeter, could not have been timed better in terms of newsworthiness.
Driving towards the residential street where the race of the road fixers was to take place, it’s apparent that any one of the intertwining roads leading to it are in desperate need of maintenance. If Sir Rod couldn’t drive his Ferrari near his home, I can tell him now that he’d struggle around these parts too.
And this is a familiar issue across the UK.
The latest industry report on the state of highways in England and Wales alone makes for grim reading. Its headlines include an estimated road repair bill that’s now in excess of £10billion – a figure almost certain to be higher when the Asphalt Industry Alliance’s (AIA) 2022 report comes out next week.
These has seen crumbling roads become more than a mere nuisance for motorists.
Some 24 cyclists have been killed in accidents involving potholes in the decade from 2009 to 2018, an estimated 3,000 cars per month suffer damage having driven over them, and the RAC recently claimed it is attending 27 breakdowns a day relating to the road-surface menace.
Not to mention the millions of pounds a year authorities are paying out in pothole-related compensation to disgruntled drivers.
The AIA says the real answer to resolving all these issue is resurfacing rather than repairs. However, it points out that our roads get a fresh dose of Tarmac on average once every 68 years.
It’s why JCB and its chairman, Lord Bamford, have created a specifically-designed solution – a bespoke vehicle that can undertake pothole repairs in record time – and fixes them permanently…
No contest: one of the roadworkers using traditional repair methods gets to work with a 32kg jackhammer while the PotholePro starts its rapid job of digging out the damaged section of road
The PotholePro and its specialist attachments can do all the street-mending jobs usually required by three separate machines used by a traditional road gang (pictured in the background)
PotholePro is SIX TIMES faster than a conventional repair
Pulling into the location of the head-to-head battle in the Staffordshire town on Longton, in the distance the PotholePro looms large.
The hulking piece of machinery could easily pass as a transformer. Its sprawling arms and various attachments cast a shadow over a two-man ‘road gang’ team already fuelling their industrial-size jack hammer and readying their brushes and spades in preparation for battle.
The PotholePro starts out as the British manufacturer’s existing Hydradig, which is already used for various applications, mostly for excavation. But the addition of the bespoke tools turns it into a pothole killing weapon.
The ‘race’, orgainsed by JCB on our behalf, has already created a betting stir between opponents.
James Harper, the PotholePro’s operator on behalf of Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s Highway Team, tells me that he has been exchanging text messages the night before with one of his rivals from the road repairs squad – and his adversary is more than confident he can best the £165,000 piece of machinery.
PotholePro vs road gang
Job done: The JCB PotholePro is parked up with the road repair complete as the hand lay team continue breaking their 12m² with a hand held breaker
Both teams were tasked to fix four potholes in a 12sqm section on the same road.
JCB PotholePro
Area prepared: 13mins 9secs
Total repair time: 45mins 11 secs
Hand lay gang
Area prepared: 1hr 19mns 40secs
Total repair time: 2hrs 16mins 11secs
Stoke council is one of a number of UK authorities to have bought their own PotholePro from the British construction machinery specialist. Those that don’t want to purchase one outright can instead lease one for around £600 per week, or approach a subcontractor with one of their own.
‘I can easily fill 40 potholes a day with it and it will pay for itself back in terms of man hours and time saved within months,’ James tells me as he shows me around the JCB’s cab.
‘I’ve driven it here this morning in convoy with our team,’ he explains as he points around the interior at a plethora of levers, buttons and handles that boggles my brain in a matter of seconds.
The supporting fleet is another two members of his team in a flat-bed truck that transports the road roller and another to provide the Tarmac required to fill the section he’s about to meticulously cut out.
The vehicles drove to the site from their HQ, with the PotholePro capable of a maximum speed of 25mph.
In the opposing corner is a pair of workmen with various tools for the job also arriving by truck.
JCB says the three separate machines this road gang needs are all built into the PotholePro’s arsenal (see the boxout below for the step-by-step guide).
The task at hand?
Both sides are tasked to remove four similar-sized potholes within an area spanning 12 metres square. The aim is to cut out the entire section, fill it with tar and seal the edges as quickly – and to a high standard – as possible.
And the stopwatch didn’t lie.
The PotholePro prepared the area – including cutting it out, sweeping it clean and squaring off the edges – in 13 minutes and 9 seconds. The conventional hand-lay gang took 1 hour, 19 minutes and 40 seconds – that’s six times longer.
‘Once I’ve finished one job, I can move onto the next area needing attention and start there while the rest of the team are filling and completing the section I’ve just worked on,’ James says.
In total, including pouring in the new tar and completing the repair, the JCB was done and dusted in 45 minutes and 11 seconds, while the traditional method saw the opposing workmen slogging for 2 hours, 16 minutes and 11 seconds.
James points out that the PotholePro’s precision tools means the entire 12-metre square section he cut is consistent to a depth of 40mm, while the back-breaking job of clearing it with a hand-held jackhammer creates varying depths that will weaken the repair over time.
In total, including pouring in the fresh layer of Tarmac and sealing the area with hot tar, the JCB and its crew were done and dusted in 45 minutes and 11 seconds. The traditional road gang are still busting a gut in the background
The PotholePro prepared the area – including cutting it out, sweeping it clean and squaring off the edges – in 13 minutes and 9 seconds. The conventional hand-lay gang (pictured) took 1 hour, 19 minutes and 40 seconds – that’s six times longer (and a lot more effort)
We are the champions: The JCB PotholePro team from Stoke-on-Trent City Council celebrate beating a traditional hand laying team. Pictured left to right are Highways Manager James Harper, Scott McNicholas and James Guest
‘When we turn up with the PotholePro, it instils public confidence…’
Stoke-on-Trent City Council was the first local authority to secure their own PotholePro in November. In the first four months it has been on a daily road-repairing onslaught, filling a volume of craters that would normally take three years to rectify.
The council said it mended a staggering 10,000 square metres of tarmac – an area equivalent to eight Olympic-sized swimming pools – in just 130 days, which, if using traditional pothole-repairing methods, would have taken a staggering 149 weeks (1,040 days) to complete.
James says the response to the JCB so far has been overwhelmingly positive.
‘It looks a lot better from a public perceptive when we turn up to repair a road with this rather than two lads with a skill saw and a jack hammer.
‘It gives residents confidence that the job has been done to such a high standard that they won’t be seeing us again in a few months.’
Linda Hulme and her granddaughter Rosie look on in the background as the PotholePro’s job is almost complete on the road outside her driveway. In the foreground, the traditional road gang have more than an hour of gruelling work ahead of them
Linda Hulme, a local resident who watched the PotholePro in action with her granddaughter Rosie, says she has lived on the street for nine years and the section of road outside her driveway had been patched up every year, only for the problem to return and worsen.
‘My husband suffers with a bad back. Each time he drives in and out of here these potholes jolt his back and it’s extremely painful.’ she told me.
‘We’ve had to call the council every year to come back to do another repair because the potholes have gotten worse – and more seem to be appearing. Looking at the job done today, it looks like this will last a lot longer than what we’ve seen before.’
JCB won’t disclose how many PotholePros it has sold so far, but admits it is fewer than they had originally projected, given the worsening state of the nation’s roads.
Currently, there are around 200 local authorities with highways maintenance responsibility in the UK and around half of those look after their own roads rather that giving the job to contractors.
Part of the deal to have one includes a JCB two-week training course for two operators, after which they are fully qualified to put it into action.
Repeated use of jack hammers – which weigh 32kgs, around the same as an average 10-year-old child – has been heavily linked to workers suffering Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome, likely for the remainder of their lives
JCB says the aim of the PotholePro isn’t to replace highways teams but to make the job easier and faster for them, while also taking less of a toll on their bodies
Having watched the two members of Stoke -on-Trent City Council’s Highway Team tackle the job by hand, it’s abundantly clear that this is back-breaking, teeth-rattling, work
Wellbeing of road workers is an often overlooked issue
The PotholePro is the brainchild of JCB chairman, Lord Bamford, 76, who has been at the helm of the family businesses for 47 years having succeeded his father, Joseph Cyril Bamford, in 1975 at the age of 30.
‘Potholes irritate people, they are a large insurance cost to councils, they damage cars and have become highly emotive,’ he passionately explains.
‘It means that today’s potholes are now much worse than potholes we used to know. Previously, they were a single hole, usually at the side of the road. But now, because they’ve not been attended to or have been poorly repaired, they can stretch for metres.
‘Too often we have seen that councils sub-contract pothole repair work to people who want to come back and do it again the next year, so as a result the repair doesn’t last for long.
‘The great thing about our machine is that it will do the job on a permanent basis.
‘The old fashioned way of fixing them is using work gangs, but this machine can do it better. What we don’t want to do is get rid of these people but to supply them with something to make it quicker and take less of a toll on their bodies.’
Lord Bamford, pictured centre, handing over the first PotholePro to Stoke-on-Trent City Council. Also pictured, James Harper (left) and Daniel Jellyman, Deputy Leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council (right)
JCB says it has reached out to Sir Rod Stewart and Harlow Council to offer the PotholePro’s services to repair the road near the singer’s home in Essex
This is a major concern for Bamford, who explains how the repeated use of jack hammers – which weigh 32kgs, around the same as an average 10-year-old child – has been heavily linked to workers suffering Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome, likely for the remainder of their lives.
Having watched the two members of Stoke -on-Trent City Council’s Highway Team tackle the job by hand, it’s abundantly clear that this is back-breaking, teeth-rattling, work.
I’m sure Sir Rod Stewart will tell you that shovelling lose stones into potholes in Essex constitutes a hard day’s graft.
JCB has reached out to the singer to offer the PotholePro’s services and even the opportunity to drive one. It might be 180mph slower than his Ferrari, but at least it will mean he can use his supercar once again.
Do YOU live in one of the worst areas for potholes in England? We reveal the top 10 spots for road user complaints, with Cumbria top
Cumbria was earlier this year crowned the pothole capital of England after data showed it topped the list of regional complaints from the public about crater-riddled roads.
The North West county beat southern regions Hampshire and Surrey to the unwanted title, according to reports logged on the Fill That Hole website in 2021.
The dedicated pothole-reporting site is ran by Cycling UK and is mostly used by those on two wheels, but the findings will also suggest where in the country poor road surfaces are most likely to do damage to motors.
Cumbria received the most complaints about cratered roads: A total of 448 potholes were registered on FillThatHole.org.uk in 2021 – more than any other county in England
Potholes, dips in the tarmac and deteriorating road surfaces are among the common problems raised on the website, which then sends the information to the relevant local authorities to arrange repairs.
In the 12 months in 2021 Cumbria amassed 448 pothole complaints, which is more than any other region.
It was ahead of 406 pothole-related grumbles made about roads in Hampshire and 399 in Surrey.
Completing the top five regions with the most-moan-about routes was Devon with 384 potholes logged and Gloucestershire with 281.
The findings come after the RAC confirmed that vehicle breakdowns caused by potholes reached a three-year high last year, with the recovery service receiving 10,123 callouts for problems caused by damaged road surfaces – up 10 per cent on pre-pandemic 2019 records.
Duncan McClure Fisher, founder and chief executive of motoring association MotorEasy, warned that a combination of freezing conditions and a lack of funding for repairs are only going to add to the problem for all road users.
He said: ‘This is something that has been getting worse for years, due in part to a lack of investment in the road infrastructure in the UK over decades.
‘The government has ploughed more than £1.2billion into repairing potholes since 2010, but it seems that’s still not enough.
‘Individual councils are literally pouring millions of pounds into addressing the issue without having great success.
‘January to March is normally ‘potholes season’ but it could extend this year due to highways staff being moved into other areas of council work because of the Covid pandemic.
‘The sheer number of potholes mean it’s rare to complete a journey without trying to avoid at least one, and they pose a serious threat to your vehicle.
‘You could be looking at an expensive bill to repair damage to the suspension. Common problems include broken coil springs and bent suspension wishbones.
‘Hitting a road crater can also do some serious harm to your alloys or wheel rims, and a heavy impact has the potential to even bend or badly distort a wheel.
‘If this happens it could wreck the airtight seal with the tyre and again mean a costly trip to the garage.’
Taking a closer look at the Fill That Hole data reveals the extent of the craters, which some say can even be a threat to life for cyclists.
One, reported near Penrith in Cumbria earlier this month (January 9), tells of a ‘deep pothole that has now damaged two of our vehicles, one destroying the tyre completely’.
It also points out that the crater was ‘repaired recently but the repair did not last any time before it was worse than the original pothole’.
Another hotspot in Cumbria, this time near the hamlet of Parsonby, highlights another major risk posed by potholes – they can cause people to swerve and therefore put other road users in peril.
The poster described the two large potholes as ‘causing hazard on a relatively narrow and busy road. Cars/lorries having to slow down heavily/stop, risk driving through potholes or drive around by crossing centre line’.
Experts recommend ensuring tyres are inflated correctly to mitigate some of the damage a pothole like this can do to your car
In June last year, the A320 just north of Guildford in Surrey was highlighted as being ‘lethal’ in the bus and cycle lane.
The concerned poster added: ‘In unbelievably dangerous state. Had red paint around for a couple of months, but of course nothing (has been) done to mend it.’
Meanwhile in Hampshire, a ‘deep depression in the carriageway’ in Worthy Road, Winchester, was reported in September 2021 due to it ‘getting worse and dangerous to cyclists as well as traffic’.
Records indicate the matter has not as yet been addressed.
MotorEasy’s Mr McClure Fisher added: ‘Members of the public are the ‘eyes and ears’ for local authorities when it comes to identifying potholes.
‘But the worrying thing about this data is that it’s only a percentage of the problems out there.
‘Most of the reports come from cyclists and even then not everyone goes to the trouble of reporting an issue because either they think it’s a fruitless exercise or they simply can’t be bothered.
‘With money tight and budgets cut across all sectors of society due to the effects of the pandemic, it’s difficult to see where sufficient funds to sort out all of these potholes and road defects are going to come from.’
He recommends ensuring tyres are inflated correctly to mitigate some of the damage a pothole can do to your car.
‘If they are too hard or too soft, the impact of hitting a pothole won’t be transferred properly through the wheel,’ he said.
‘We advise people to keep a close eye on their tyre pressure, especially during colder months when the air inside can contract and leave them underinflated.
‘Checking them at least once a week is a good rule of thumb to follow.’
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