Sudbury to spend $400K on all-in-one pothole patching machine

By this time next year, there should be a new automated pothole patching machinefor useon the streets ofGreater Sudbury.

The northern Ontario cityincluded the $400,000 purchase in its recently approved 2021 municipal budget.

It will join other cities with similar machines for pothole patching, including including Thunder Bay and Ottawa.

Tony Cecutti, Greater Sudbury's general manager of growth and infrastructure, said the automatedequipment will do everything a typical pothole patching crew would do.

"You're using one piece of equipment to store the asphalt, dispense it onto the road and to pack it into the hole," he said.

Just one person is needed to operate the technology on the machine, so other workers can be deployed to other road activities.

"Any savings in labour and we are expecting some savings in labour will be redeployed to other road maintenance activities," Cecutti said, citing examples like catch basin repairs, guide-rail repairs and sign repairs.

"We anticipate that one piece of equipment is not going to replace all of the asphalt repairs we have to do as well, so we're still going to have crews available to do other asphalt repairs.

"Certainly the community wouldn't be surprised to hear that there is still lots of work to do on our roadways, so we have lots of backlog of road maintenance activities, where we could use that additional time to get at those activities."

Cecutti saidthe automated pothole equipment will provide more efficiencies tothe city.

"So in a given day, you're accomplishing more road repair with less resources."

Now that the purchase has been approved, the city will begin the request for proposal (RPF)processforequipment companies for bids to supply the machines. The citywill considercosts bothfor the equipment andthe price tag to run it, includingmaintenance, energy, and ease and complexity of use.

"We won't be basing our selection solely on the purchase price, but on the total cost of owning that piece of equipment," said Cecutti.

"We're certainly hoping that suppliers that distribute that equipment will express some interest and submit a proposal."

The machine should be ready for use in Greater Sudbury during the 2022 pothole season.