Midlothian Council's new pothole repair figures reveal 'The Tarmintor' helped hit more than double the target, on National Pothole Day

Midlothian Council is on track to permanently repair 5,000 potholes in a year with its new JCB Pothole Pro machine, more than double the target.

Speaking on National Pothole Day, Monday, January 15, the council’s roads and transportation service manager Wayne Clark said the 13-tonne digger was living up to its name.

He said: “We called it ‘The Tarminator’ after a public competition and it’s certainly ‘annihilating’ a much greater number of potholes than we expected. Our target was to use the machine to permanently repair 2,000 potholes in its first year from May 2023 to May of this year but we’re easily on track to smash the 5,000 mark.”

JCB Pothole Pro driver Stuart Dunlop (behind the wheel) is pictured with Mikey Hill, of Midlothian Council's roads service in the centre, along with David Stewart of the AA’s patrol team and Robin Bryant, far left, the joint MD of Scot JCB. Stuart, Mike and the roads team were about to tackle potholes just outside Carrington.

The JCB Pothole Pro is a three-in-one solution specifically designed to take on any pothole repair, large or small. It cuts away damaged road surface, crops the edges of the cavity and cleans it out within eight minutes.

A five-person crew then prepares, fills, and rollers the repair sealing it permanently, all within half an hour. Conventional methods would take half a day to do fix the same pothole temporarily.

Wayne added: “And these are permanent repairs that should last the lifetime of the road.”

The JCB was bought as part of a £780,000 capital investment to replace outdated roads machinery. The council also recently completed a £5 million, two-year programme to resurface residential streets. An additional capital budget of £12.5m is to be spent over the next five years to continue to upgrade the residential road network.

Wayne said that while the Pothole Pro was a great addition to the council’s ‘arsenal’ of equipment, it is an ongoing challenge to tackle potholes across 640 kilometres and growing of kilometres of roads maintained the council.

He said: “That’s why we continue to have a robust system in place to inspect, prioritise and repair potholes with emergency pothole repairs carried out within 24 hours.”