Dragon Patcher

THE CHALLENGE

Potholes are an increas­ing prob­lem on our roads. Tra­di­tion­al ways of pre­vent­ing and repair­ing potholes are both costly and time-con­sum­ing, with lengthy oper­a­tions dis­rupt­ing traf­fic flow and incon­veni­en­cing city motor­ists.

THE SOLUTION

Peter­bor­ough High­way Ser­vices, a part­ner­ship with Peter­bor­ough City Coun­cil and Skanska, is using new tech­no­logy from Sweden to provide a safe, fast and envir­on­ment­ally sus­tain­able solu­tion. The ‘Dragon Patch­er’ – nick­named due to its fire emit­ting nozzle — is oper­ated by one per­son in a cab. The area which needs repair­ing is cleaned with com­pressed air and then sealed with a com­bin­a­tion of stone chip­pings and hot bitu­men emul­sion. The sur­face is then ready to take traf­fic. In colder weather con­di­tions a flame is applied to warm the sur­face. The patch­er also treats minor cracks and craz­ing that could oth­er­wise develop into potholes, thereby treat­ing a poten­tial defect before it occurs.

THE RESULTS

The patch­er is proven to be sig­ni­fic­antly quick­er at repairs, and costs are almost half those incurred using the tra­di­tion­al meth­od. There is less waste and, most import­antly, it is safer for road work­ers. The out­come of the UK tri­als showed that the Swedish patch­er was twice as quick when com­pared with a manu­al repair solu­tion.

In Peter­bor­ough, the patch­er has increased pro­ductiv­ity four times over and reduced costs by 50%.