Roadmaster patching unit ahead of its time! Maintaining more Mayo roads, in less time, using less resources.

Mayo County Council accepted delivery of Archway Roadmaster velocity patching unit number 4 this March. Tom Gilligan, Director of Services with Mayo County Council chatted with us to explain why Mayo County Council place great value on their Roadmaster machines.

Mayo County Council have an extensive road network of approximately 6600 kilometers. The Archway Roadmaster velocity patching unit is crucial to ensuring that they can maintain their road network to the highest standard possible, according to Tom Gilligan, Director of Services.

“The work of the patching unit is highly valued here. The public and our local representatives are extremely interested in the ongoing work of the Roadmaster. Councillors continuously ask me when the unit will be in their area. We issue weekly updates as to where the patcher is and how much it is doing and in what areas. Council members love to see it coming to their area, so much so that we recently purchased an additional machine from Archway Products. We find the level of service from the Archway team is second to none.”

This Roadmaster was an even greater help during the recent COVID 19 pandemic. The fact that the unit can be operated by a single operator was instrumental in ensuring that the council was able to comply with health and safety protocols and social distancing requirements.

Roadmaster and the Environment

Tom tells us, that he and his colleagues are already noticing the impact of climate change through the severity of weather events. “Our road network is coming under more pressure, the fact that the Roadmaster patching unit can be deployed all year round, is pivotal to repairing potholes and other road defects to maintain the quality of the roads, but more importantly the safety of the roads.”

We also find that we are sending out fewer vehicles to do the patching when we use the Roadmaster. Simply put, “We send out fewer trucks which is good for carbon footprint reduction, but also, it is a fact is that less people are needed to operate the Roadmaster. This means we don’t have the same set up from a traffic management and logistics point of view. It is a self-contained operation; and that is vital to us.”

Roadmasters speeds up the mobilisation of maintenance work

Tom highly values the flexibility that the Roadmaster offers. It can be deployed on all areas of the road network, on all types of roads. This enables the Mayo County Council team to be proactive in maintaining all roads, and they can mount a very quick response when needed. For example, after heavy rains or other weather events, the Roadmaster enables the Mayo roads team to mobilise quickly, fixing and preventing additional damage to the road surface throughout the county. The volume of roads they can cover this way, is much higher than using traditional patching methods. With the Roadmaster, Mayo County Council can maintain much more of the county’s roads, in much less time, using less fuel and other resources to do so. According to Tom, “The Roadmaster velocity patcher, was ahead of its time to some degree!”

The Roadmaster is cost effective and the grant from The Department of Transport has helped Mayo County Council to add another Roadmaster to their fleet. As Tom says “It is an investment and I’m delighted to be taking delivery of another one this March. I would love to have another two or three, but the 4 we have will be shared around the areas When we only had three there was a lot of fighting going on for them! The Roadmaster is just constantly in demand. Once one was seen in an area, Councillors from other areas would be looking for it to visit their area. That is why we are buying more! It is also great to see an Irish company doing so well!”