Province unveils new equipment to improve pothole repairs

Crews with the province’s Public Works Department are about to start getting their hands dirty on dozens of pieces of new equipment to better deal with potholes and road repairs.

At an event Tuesday at a public works depot in Sydney River, N.S., the department unveiled several of more than 80 pieces of specialized equipment being added to its maintenance fleet.

“We’ve recognized that there’s a need to modernize our maintenance across Nova Scotia,” Public Works Minister Fred Tilley said in an interview.

“We had a team of staff, MLAs, contractors helping us out to determine what the needs were to modernize our systems. And this is a result of that.”

The gear includes a new method of handling asphalt that will result in better, longer-lasting pothole repairs, the department says.

New front-end loaders will have brush cutters to more easily reach under guardrails and across road shoulders. Other new equipment includes skid steers with asphalt planers, sweepers and compactor attachments for patching roads.

Workers will now handle asphalt in insulated boxes that will enable crews to mix and transport the heated product to the job site, keeping it hotter for a longer period of time and making repairs more effective. Previously, asphalt loaded onto a truck would cool slightly during transit.

The fleet’s new gear cost the province $8 million and will hit the road once workers are trained. Each area of the province will have a dedicated crew for the equipment.

“As a government, it’s our role to provide the tools that the team needs to make improvements,” Tilley said.

“So we should see much improved maintenance on highways, secondary roads, trunks, routes, all of those roads that our public need to get to and fro.”

A government release said the province has committed $161 million for asphalt and resurfacing of highways and roads this year, including $26 million for summer maintenance.

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