Pothole machine fuelled by vegetable oil returns

A new machine that repairs potholes while being fuelled on vegetable oil will be deployed across all of a county's rural roads.

The Dragon Patcher machine had been trialled by Suffolk County Council earlier this year.

It works five times faster than traditional pothole fixing methods and will now be used county-wide as part of a highways team campaign.

Paul West, Conservative cabinet member for Ipswich, operational highways and flooding, said the council had taken "proactive steps" to get ahead on winter road repairs.

"Cold and wet weather often wreaks havoc with our roads, which is why we have taken proactive steps and developed a targeted campaign to tackle and provide resilience to our road network ahead of this winter," he said.

"The aim of the programme is to treat areas of Suffolk’s roads earlier with the goal of reducing the number more substantial defects that may cause safety concerns to road users throughout the winter."

The locations for the pothole prevention programme have been identified and highways teams will be working when conditions allow from 07:00 to 17:00 BST.

While repairs are under way, traffic will be managed temporarily and the council has warned of some waiting times of up to 15 minutes.

The Dragon Patcher machines use compressed air to clean the road surface, which heats it to allow the repair material to bond with it.

The machine is fuelled with hydrotreated vegetable oil which the council says reduces the raw material use and creates zero waste.

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