NORTH Somerset Council has found a way to repair the region's roads and limit the amount of damage that potholes cause.

Working in partnership with Milestone Infrastructure, North Somerset Council is using specialist contractor Multevo to deliver permanent repairs.

The contractor will be using the Multihog machine to deliver the repairs. This will involve cutting out the defected part of the road, which creates a sound base for permanent reinstatement.

Other councils have tested the machinery and have found that 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.” 

By the end of March, the Multihog team are set to repair over 450 defects across North Somerset sites, many of which are known for causing damage to residents' cars.

The sites for the patching trial are as follows:

  • Woodhill Road, Portishead, BS20 7ET;
  • Naish Hill, Portishead, BS20 7RS;
  • Hill Road, Clevedon, BS21 7NE;
  • Kenn Street, Kenn, BS21 6TN;
  • Sandy Lane, Failand, BS8 3SQ;
  • Winford Lane, Winford BS41 8LT;
  • Sutton Lane, Redhill BS40 5RL;
  • Church Lane, Churchill BS25 5QW;
  • Wrington Road / West Hay Road, Congresbury;
  • High Street, Worle BS22 6EQ;
  • Lower Kewstoke Road, Worle BS22 9JN;
  • Beaufort Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS23 3BB;
  • Gordon Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS23 3BD;
  • Meadow Street, Weston-Super-Mare, BS23 1QH;
  • Milburn Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS23 3BE;
  • Queens Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS23 2LQ;
  • Shrubbery Avenue, Weston-Super-Mare, BS23 2JS;
  • Stafford Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS23 3BW;
  • Swiss Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS23 3AY;
  • Maxmills Lane, Winscombe, BS25 1DS;
  • Rydal Avenue, Locking, BS24 8AB.