Gee Whiz! Introducing The Pothole Killer

infrastructurist ^

[newbie2008]

In the days of yore, if you were a city official and wanted to fix a pothole, you’d just send out a road crew to do it. A typical squad of four men could repair five of them in the course of an average day, including breaks for lunch, coffee, and scratching their butts.

Now things have changed. There is a futuristic new machine called the pothole killer that allows one person–who never has to get out of the truck cab–to “hot patch” 100 potholes in a day. (Watch the video for details.) In other words, the machine makes human labor nearly 100 times more efficient in repairing damaged roads. Fixing a pothole the old way: $70; Fixing a pothole the new way: $3.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

State unions will never allow these to be used.

Either that or they’ll demand to be job banked.

[KoRn]

The unions will shoot this thing down even before the paperwork on it gets anywhere NEAR a city bureaucrat’s desk.

[garyhope]

Sounds like great news to me.

I hope they’re coming soon to my neighborhood.

[smokingfrog]

I’ve seen these in Houston. They work - but not that great. They usually leave behind a lot of loose gravel too. Better than bending your rims or causing an accident I guess.

[EternalVigilance]

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Need a picture:

Pothole Killer

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Since the Pothole Killer is functionally a job killer, it might make sense to hold off using it on a large scale until this whole recessionary unpleasantness is behind us.

Somebody can always benefit from a scruffy old copy of "Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt.

[az_gila]

A typical squad of four men could repair five of them in the course of an average day, including breaks for lunch, coffee, and scratching their butts.

..... Fixing a pothole the old way: $70; Fixing a pothole the new way: $3

---

Mathematics Alert

Old way - 5 potholes per day at $70 each = $350
Squad of four union men = $88 each (close enough...:^)
Eight union hours per worker = $11 per hour

Which towns/cities hire road workers for $11 per hour - a number that must include benefits to keep the “per hole” cost calculation correct?

[eclecticEel]

But what about the union-mandated shotgun co-pilot, or coffee stirrer in the back seat, or guy to get out of the truck and hold the caution flag? We have to make sure all these petty positions get fully staffed, with benefits and pension.

[wideminded]

Apparently the first stage in the formation of a pothole is often the occurrence of a bubble of water underneath the road surface. Several years ago I heard that the Japanese had developed a truck that used some sort of radar to detect these bubbles before the potholes had even formed. But I’m not sure that the current Japanese economy budgets for this advance pothole detection.

[Monitor]

Somebody can always benefit from a scruffy old copy of "Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt.

Link.

[bikerman]

Thousands of unused shovels to be auctioned off.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Well, there’s amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Economics-One-Lesson-Henry-Hazlitt/dp/193355021X/ref=ed_oe_h

There are some new and used at ebay also...

Hazlitt destroyed fallacies like that (jobkilling inventions) in his book. One of the few who could keep economics from being dismal. Should be read by all, sort of a “pre-economics” course to weed out hopeless collectivists, liars and libs.

[ASOC]

We had them in Anchorage. Called it ‘Snuffy’ (after some dorky sesame st character)

It would fill the pothole with loose gravel and oil.

3 days later the pothole was back and usually larger.

The city got smart and got rid of them.

That the oil/ashphalt mix never really set up is the problm.

I had suggested quik setting epoxy with the gravel, but no dice, too expensive. So, we are back to the 3 guys in the truck....

[Monitor]

Well, there’s amazon.

Yup, and cheap enough that I can give them away to whomever suggests that borrowing money from China to pay people to fill potholes somehow stimulates the economy. Easy to forget that taxes will need to be collected in order to pay back that loan plus interest.