HAMPSHIRE’S highways teams are always looking for innovation in road maintenance to get the best value for money for residents.

Councillor Rob Humby, the county’s executive member for environment and transport, went to see for himself how one such innovation, the Roadmaster, has been performing during its trial runs.

Mr Humby said: “I’m keen to drive innovation and want to make sure we get repairs right first time, so I was very interested to see what the Roadmaster can do.

“Finding the most efficient and cost-effective ways to look after Hampshire’s roads are key to ensuring we deliver the best possible highways service we can for Hampshire’s residents.

“With nearly 5,500 miles of road to look after, we need to continually look at ways to improve how we maintain the roads with the resources we have. Good roads are a vital part of Hampshire’s infrastructure supporting the county’s economic prosperity, so making sure everyone can get around – for their jobs, education, and leisure – is a priority for the county council.”

Mr Humby added: “Hampshire is one of the best-performing county councils when it comes to highways maintenance, coming top among the South East county councils in the annual independent national survey of residents’ satisfaction with highways services. We’re working hard to keep it that way.”

The Roadmaster is operated by one person and completes the average repair in a short period of time. This means that hundreds of metres of patching can be carried out in a single shift. It can operate successfully in both rural and urban areas and, because it mixes material to use on site, there is no waste. It can carry out a range of road repairs, including fixing potholes, preventative seals on cracks, reinstating damaged carriageway edges, and preparation for surface dressing and small areas of surface dressing.

Account director Paul Anderson added: “This Roadmaster offers a really efficient way of addressing road repairs in a quick and cost-effective way.

“The Roadmaster can attend to many more jobs in a single day than conventional methods will allow. This offers significant benefits for the road users of Hampshire.”