Northamptonshire County Council is set to start the winter phase of its annual extensive highways repair programme this month.

This will involve various treatments including pothole repair, pre-service dress work and sealing cracked services. This will run alongside the reactive maintenance that addresses issues highlighted by routine inspections and reports through Street Doctor.

Northamptonshire County Council has invested in machinery in a bid to provide long-lasting and efficient highway repairs. Earlier this year, two Thermal Road Patching Units started work on the counties roads.

The Roadmaster is the latest road repair vehicle to be added to the fleet. This machinery delivers ‘significantly’ lower cost per tonne compared to traditional and other patching methods, with a capacity allowing up to seven tonnes per load of chips and two loads of chips per day. This is enough capacity for a full day’s work, reports the Northamptonshire Chronicle.

Councillor Jason Smithers, county council cabinet member for highways and place, said: “With less money available to us for repairs we need to make a little go a long way and use innovation to make the public pound stretch further.

“The resultant cost savings and enhanced performance have added enormously to the appeal of the Roadmaster, and the technology has proved to be a less labour intensive and more cost-effective way of repairing roads quickly.”

The Roadmaster is built on an 18-tonne single axle Volvo Truck with an automatic transmission and is fitted with an elongated hopper to store chips and a container to store binder. It also has a hydraulically controlled articulated boom which – when not in use – folds across the front of the truck for safer transport.