North Somerset roads set to benefit from innovative repairs trial

by Adrian Tatum

A new innovative approach to pothole, defect and patch repairs is being used in North Somerset to improve the condition of roads.

North Somerset Council in partnership with Milestone Infrastructure are using specialist contractor Multevo, to deliver permanent repairs to benefit residents and road users.

The contractor will be carrying out repairs using the Multihog machine. This compact, road legal and multi-purpose machine is renowned for delivering productive, permanent and safe repairs.

The repair method precisely cuts out the defected part of the road, creating a sound base for permanent reinstatement. This provides a long-lasting repair and is much more cost effective than traditional methods due to eliminating repeat repair visits.

Councils who have used the machinery found outstanding potholes were reduced by more than 60 per cent in less than 18 months.

Cllr Hannah Young, North Somerset Council’s executive member with responsibility for roads said: “I often hear from residents about the frustration and damage that potholes cause. We all want to see well-maintained local areas that we can have pride in and it’s increasingly challenging when general costs are rising.

“This approach to repairing roads provides a high quality, efficient and cost effective way of prolonging the life of our roads.

“At a time when council budgets are stretched to the limit we are looking at every opportunity we can to deliver services more efficiently so it’s great to find an innovative solution which provides long lasting results and reduces expensive repeat visits.”

Josh Sweeney, Director of Marketing and Growth at Multevo added: “We are delighted to be able to demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution to pothole, defect and patch repairs. Using the Multihog we can treat small, medium and larger sized defects and pothole clusters in a single visit using the same team and machine to permanently prevent further deterioration in one hit.”

The Multihog team, who have been working since January are set to repair over 450 defects across a range of sites by the end of March. The sites were selected by the council’s area officers who nominated roads they thought were most suitable for patching work. The patching trial is separate from the council’s extensive road resurfacing programme.

The sites selected for the Multihog trial are: