Mixed reaction as Sandwell Council unveil new pothole-fixing-machine
Residents have been having their say on the state of Sandwell's roads, just a day after a brand new £150,000 pothole filling machine was revealed in the borough.
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The Multevo Multihog road planer is used to scrape the holes in preparation for the infilling material which is then flattened by the crew, meaning the pothole disappears within seconds.
The machine was purchased by the council in June 2024 for the price of £150,000 as part of their efforts to fix road damage across the borough.
Sandwell is one of many councils in the West Midlands and Black Country which has received criticism for the state of the roads from motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.
After a video of the Multihog in action was posted on Sandwell's social media pages, the reaction was mixed, with some asking for specific areas of road or paving to be targeted,
Michael Morris commented: " Any chance you can do the man hole cover on Newbury Lane just before the flower shop?"
Amy Taylor said: "How about Powis Avenue? Humps aren't visible at night mostly... the island for Powis Avenue and Cupfields Avenue needs to be either higher or removed. Nobody slows for it and its putting people at risk."
David Jones said: " From what I've observed you are repairing roads that don't need repairing."
But Paul Hester was in favour of the work being undertaken and said: " Have a word with Walsall please, show 'em how it's done.
Sandwell Council say the new new machine forms a part of their commitments to road repair and resurfacing, and they have invested £55 million into the highways in the coming financial year.
The council highways site supervisor Lee Preece, from Oldbury, said that the machine turns what would be a two-day job into only one.
He said: "It's a really good bit of machinery. What you can see it doing now is planning off the surface of the road, which has smaller potholes in it, which will then be filled in by the team.
"The problem with manual digging is that our site workers can only dig for around 18 minutes before being required to have a break or switch out. This allows us to dig the road consistently without stopping, saving what is around a day of work, and the worker's hands."
Sandwell Council's cabinet member for environment and highways councillor Keith Allcock said: "We know the condition of our roads is important to our residents and we wanted to show you how we’re tackling potholes on Sandwell’s roads.
"We’re really proud that our performance on maintaining our roads and repairing potholes puts us in the top three local authorities nationally, and the top in the Black Country.
