Columbia officials are planning to begin using a pothole patching machine again that has been sitting idle in the city barn.
Alderman Jason Stringer said during Tuesday’s meeting that the machine is collecting cobwebs now and encouraged trying to see how it works.
“There’s about 18,000 places in town where we could use that thing. And that’s conservative,” Stringer said.
The city bought the machine for $48,850 in 2014, according to reports from the C-P at the time.
Mayor Justin McKenzie said it’s the same as the machines Marion County uses but is not as effective on roads in town as out in the county. He said the tar melts in the summer and slings out when cars go over it.
However, he said they’re going to try to use it next week on some back streets that don’t have as much traffic as main roads.
Recently Stringer went out with Marion County Beat 4 Supervisor Tater Rowell to watch how one of the county’s machines works.
It first blows out the pothole, drying it and getting any loose material out. It then sprays hot tar, which seals it and gives something for a dried clay aggregate to stick to. Stringer said the county uses dried clay from Texas and loves how it works.
Stringer said it’s a temporary fix but that it can make a pothole pretty smooth and would likely be more effective than dumping hot asphalt.
Rowell is willing to send his two workers who operate the machine to tutor the city’s workers on how to operate the machine, Stringer said.
