The City of Charlottetown has a new weapon in its arsenal against potholes.
The public works department purchased a new asphalt hot patching machine last year and is now putting it to work to ensure to city roads stay safe to travel year-round.
The machine, which was purchased from a company in Michigan for $30,000, takes crumbled asphalt from broken curbs and pavement, remixes it at a high temperature and uses it to "hot patch" potholes.
Public works crews have been filling potholes all week and they're pleased with the results.
"It's like a big oven, it heats up the broken asphalt and we can fill the holes and it will stay longer than the cold mix of fine gravel and tar," said public works field co-ordinator Jim Molyneaux. "We're seeing good results. We hope drivers will notice a difference."
The big orange machine being towed behind a city truck, crews take a blowtorch to dry the wet pothole so the material will bind to it, then pour the hot asphalt in before rolling it smooth.
The real test of the machine will come in the spring when potholes begin popping up like bunnies because of the freeze/thaw cycle. In the past the potholes were filled with asphalt milling which didn't stay in the holes, creating inefficiencies.
"It was a short-term fix, crews were coming back to the same hole time and time again," said Coun. Terry Bernard, chair of the public works committee.
"Now this new machine will fix the pothole once and it's sealed. It's like you're doing a patch in the summertime."
The machine will save the city money in the long-run, said Mayor Clifford Lee.
"It recycles old asphalt too, which is good for the environment. The machine will end up paying for itself within two years."
City buys machine to fill potholes year-round
City buys machine to fill potholes year-round
- Published on January 19th, 2010
- Published on June 15th, 2010
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Staff ~ Farm Focus
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Comments
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- eastern pei
- - June 21st, 2010 at 20:38:14
hmmmmm two guys working, one guy watching...it must be too cold for the other 4 crew members to watch so they are sitting in the truck.
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- sarah
- - June 21st, 2010 at 20:36:03
Did a great job on Woodward Dr.,Thanks guys
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- Car eating
- - June 21st, 2010 at 20:28:31
Bring that puppy on over to Allen street and fix the mess ya made in the fall!!!
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- Good
- - June 21st, 2010 at 20:24:43
Great. Can you please start with the potholes on the UPEI campus? They're terrible.
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- Highway
- - June 21st, 2010 at 20:20:51
Hopefully, Ronnie MacKinley will get a few, too. The City doesn't have all the potholes!
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- ben
- - June 21st, 2010 at 20:17:54
i guess you can't please everyone as rome wasn't built in a day, was it?
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- bill
- - June 21st, 2010 at 20:11:39
rent that out to upei for a month or two would you ?
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- Melissa
- - June 21st, 2010 at 20:09:54
This sounds like a good idea; I hope it works out. It's nice to know we have folks in govt who keep striving to find better ways to do things, and not just sit on the old ways. Also, if this evens out the cycle of public works employment, that would be a nice side effect for the public works crews.
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- old news
- - June 21st, 2010 at 19:45:40
wasn't this reported last summer?
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- Chris
- - June 21st, 2010 at 19:39:25
Environmentally friendly? Hmm...gas fumes from both the patcher and city truck pulling it, plus the fumes from the ashphalt reheating, plus the fuel used for both machines...riiiiigggghhhhhttttt....
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- d
- - June 21st, 2010 at 19:36:35
They should spend more money on things like that instead of wasting it on things like painting cop cars to make city residents think police are doing a better job, when we all really know they don't do anything at all.
