INDUSTRY EQUIPMENT: CONSTRUCTION
The Jetpatcher team can fix up to
200 potholes in a day.
fresh emulsion, which is a semi-hot
application. Once filled, a layer of emulsion
and crusher dust is applied to the top of the
pothole to further protect it.
There is no time wasted when you
fix a pothole, it is completed within
seven minutes, and the road can take
traffic almost instantly. The difference
between this method and conventional
means is that there is no pre-mixing, all
the materials are mixed on site once the
machine is in operation. be used again immediately, whereas the
old way requires the mixture to settle and
the team has to wait another 45 minutes
before the road can be reopened. “The
secret,” says Bothma, “is not so much what
happens inside the truck, but the fact that
the hole is fixed from the bottom up and
there is no further delay once the failure is
rectified,” he says. The size of the hoppers
on the back of the truck range from 2.5
cubic metres, four cubic metres, five cubic
metres and six cubic metres.
Bottoms up solution Assessing potholes
in a radius
“When Jetpatcher rehabilitates a pothole, it
is a more permanent fix than when done the
conventional way, says Bothma. Traditionally
potholes are fixed ‘from the top down’
which means hot asphalt mix is dumped into
a hole manually, with the risk that it will open
up again if not done properly. Jetpatcher is
one of only a few new technologies available
in South Africa to assist in road maintenance
and rehabilitation. When using hot asphalt
(conventional) the team has to transport the
mix from the plant, drive to site, and within
specific time frame, patch as many potholes
as possible. The danger is, of course, that if
the asphalt cools down too quickly, you lose
that whole batch. In contrast, there is almost
no wastage when using the Jetpatcher.
Compared to the average rate of
200 potholes per day, the best that a
conventional team can do is fixing only
30 to 40 potholes, and that’s if the team
is efficient. In addition, the Jetpatcher is
able to operate 24/7. The other benefit of
using the Jetpatcher is that the road can
www.equipmentandhire.co.za
Jetpatcher undertakes government work
mainly as appointed contractors to do
maintenance and rehabilitation once a road
has been constructed. The company has
their own road management teams and the
strength of Jetpatcher is that a fleet of five
to six trucks can be unleashed in a radius
of 40 or 50km in a very short time. These
teams are able to assess each and every
individual hole which they normally do
before they fix it and feed the information
into their current data base. “Jetpatcher
gives an overall assessment of the road
conditions in addition to going around fixing
the roads,” says Bothma.
Although not part of the business
model, Jetpatcher does rent out their
vehicles, with the necessary support. This
arrangement could be ideal for a mining or
quarrying operation, for example, where
the company has to maintain the access
road into the mining area. In this case,
van Jaarsveld explains, the mine needs
The Jetpatcher truck comes in four sizes, depending on the size of the
aggregate hopper.
The Jetpatcher team in action.
to determine (based on the length of the
road) how much material will be needed
to rehabilitate the damaged areas. “Per
kilometre one needs to work out how many
square metres needs to be fixed and then
stockpile the aggregate and bitumen all
along the road every few kilometres. In
the inner cities for optimal performance a
second truck supplies the Jetpatcher on a
continuous basis, however a second truck
is not required for production.
The Jetpatcher is certainly a solution
for fixing potholes that is slowly but surely
generating more interest. It is a clean,
quick and no-nonsense technology, ideal for
African conditions, and one hopes it gains
traction in the fight against the pothole
scourge.
NOVEMBER 2019
27