The Pothole Killer
One of the very first weblog posts I ever made (way back in 1998) (man I’m old) (actually, it was my 9th post) had to do with a bus sized vehicle that would automatically fix potholes as you drove around with it.
I don’t know if it ever got developed or not, but I see that there is this other company which has developed a truck which it calls the the Pothole Killer:
The demonstration began with a pothole filled with water. The truck drove up to the hole and extended a large arm in front of the truck. It blasted air into the hole and sent water and small debris flying. It then poured out a “tack coat” — hot asphalt that allows the new rock to adhere and blend with the old.
For the grand finale, the truck poured dry paving mixture over the hole. The whole process took about three minutes.
And there’s no wait for the mixture to dry. Cars and trucks — even the Pothole Killer truck — can immediately drive over the patched pothole. “Traffic can have it right away,” Nicholas said.
He said the truck holds six tons of asphalt — more than enough for a day’s work. And the Pothole Killer can be operated by one person who doesn’t have to leave the truck. He said the truck is safer than the current method, which requires road crews to work outside in traffic.
[…]
Nicholas said one town with a pothole killer started a pothole hotline. People would report a pothole, the truck would be sent to repair it, and within hours the mayor would call the citizen to ask if the work was to their liking.
According to the article, the company has been around for 17 years. Why aren’t these things more widespread?
They have a website if you’re interested, with a flash pothole killers game even! (The game is totally sploitable, I got 471,500 points by leaving a rock on my space bar all night.)