An end in sight to recurring cold-weather potholes?

Anyone taking to the roads after the latest bout of severe weather will probably have noticed how existing pot holes have got bigger while new ones have sprung up to supplement them.

Chewed up road surfaces are bad news for cyclists, but for one rider, Daniel Osen, who also happens to be a Sales Director for chemical construction products manufacturer Ronacrete, they have proved an inspiration.

Daniel has launched a new pothole repair product in the UK as a direct result of encountering so many dangerous holes in the road while out riding.

“Several cold winters have taken their toll on the road surface making them much more dangerous for cyclists.” he said. “You often can’t see the potholes until you are almost on top of them and taking avoiding action can mean steering into the path of a car, especially on narrow country lanes.”

Being both a construction product salesman and a cyclist led Daniel to make some investigations into pothole repair. He particularly wanted to understand why the repairs so often failed, with holes reappearing months or weeks later.

He and his colleagues at Ronacrete found that many traditional pothole repair products use solvents to make them soft enough to use. However, these solvents, which are based on petrol, diesel and benzene, are not good for the longevity of the product and can be detrimental to the environment as they can leach out before contaminating streams and rivers.

His company's solution is RonaRoad GreenPatch Pothole Repair which can be laid at temperatures as low as -20°C and which is said to be ‘greener’ and more effective than other pothole repair products on the market.

The new product doesn’t contain damaging petrol solvents, but instead has a softener based on biodegradable plant extracts. The softener prolongs the life of the repair as it is free of the toxic solvents that can eat away at the other components in the products, weakening the bond from the moment they are applied - one of the main reasons why holes reappear.

In addition to its durability and eco-friendliness, the other significant benefit of RonaRoad GreenPatch is that it can be laid at extremely low temperatures, thus remaining pliable in severe cold weather. This is important because potholes appear as a result of water trickling into small holes in the road surface and then expanding when the water freezes causing the surface to break away. So potholes need to be repaired in cold weather because that is when they appear and grow.

Daniel is pleased with the uptake of the product success thus far.

He said: “Repairs using RonaRoad GreenPatch have so far been carried out on the M25, A40, M4 motorway and on other major and minor roads across the country. Most of the repairs are now many months old, lasting far longer than competitive repair products.”