By BROOKE STEVENSON
Sunday Times Newspapers
ALLEN PARK — Residents’ woes over potholes throughout the city will be lessened with the purchase of a new truck.
The City Council approved the purchase of a new Pro Patch pothole patch truck during Tuesday’s meeting.
The truck is a self-contained unit that can use either warm coal patch or hot asphalt to fill the holes. It also will be able to keep the materials warm and pliable to quicken the patching process.
“This truck also has a compressor, a jackhammer, a compactor and a plate compactor,” said Director of Engineering and Public Service Rick Lang. “Virtually what this allows us to do is clean all those holes out, dry them out, put down a base and introduce the material.”
He added that the asphalt or coal patch the truck houses will stay in the holes much longer than what’s available in the process the city currently uses.
“It is fair to say that this is a technological leap,” Councilman Kyle Tertzag said. “It is leaps and bounds forward from what we are doing today.”
Lang said he doesn’t remember the city ever having a pothole patch truck.
“Our current pothole patcher is a dump truck and some coal patch,” he said.
The new truck also will cut down on man-hours used to fix holes, not only because of the quicker process, but because once holes are filled they will have to be attended to less often.
“We spent a lot of money last year fixing the roads, and we’re going to take the next step to make sure we maintain those roads,” said Mayor Gary Burtka. “This will help us try to deal with some of the potholes that this last winter has left us with.”
Councilman Francesco Tucci said he has received many complaints from residents about the potholes throughout the city.
“Unfortunately a lot of the roads are out of our jurisdiction,” he said, “but the ones that we control will be fixed more permanently and quicker.”
Lang expects the truck to be on the roads fixing holes when the weather first permits.