MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Crews testing out their new Dura Patcher in Monongalia County believe they’ll be able to extend the road patching season into the cold weather.
“It’s a Dura Patching machine that actually mixes the aggregate the liquid asphalt together to be injected into potholes,” District 4 Maintenance Assistant Larry Weaver said during an interview with Carrie Bly of the Department of Transportation.
Weaver said the Dura Patcher, which District 4 is renting, will be a big help with increasing efficiency when patching up troubled roads.
“It allows us a lot more patching time,” he said during an interview with the Department of Transportation’s Carrie Bly. “It also allows us to not have extra product leftover.”
Weaver particularly praised the machine’s self-contained nature during the crew’s training session with the Dura Patcher.
“It’s going to extend our patching season well into cold weather,” Weaver said. “It’ll allow us to cut down on the amount of man power we have to take and do our patching operation. I think it’s going to be a big benefit.”
The use of this machine will also cut down on time spent getting asphalt from a plant, and that asphalt potentially cooling in a DOT truck. The unit is entirely self-contained.
“It’s a system that allow us to take and do a complete operation in one movement,” he said. “We can take in clearer the debris from the hole.”
West Virginia’s roads have been a hot topic of discussion for years. In May, a TRIP study showed West Virginia had the 6th-worst rural roads in the United States.
An audit of the Department of Highways is due out later this year.
Delegates like Patsy Trecost (D-Harrison) have already been preparing proposals to bring in front of the Legislature for the next session.
District 4 maintains the roads in Doddridge, Harrison, Marion, Monongalia, Preston, and Taylor counties.