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City enlists Silly Putty in bulletproof bags to fight potholes

By adamg on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 11:18am

HolePatch guy shows DPW how to putty up holes. Photo by city of Boston.Hole Patch employee patches hole. Photo by city of Boston.

The Boston DPW today begins trials of three new methods for temporarily filling spring potholes until they can be permanently fixed when the weather warms up. Among them, according to a press release from the mayor's office:

Hole Patch utilizes a silly putty like material in a Kevlar bag that is placed in potholes. City workers simply place a Hole Patch bag in the pothole to make it safe for drivers. They return when weather conditions improve to make a permanent repair. Because Hole Patch advertises as easy to apply, it can in theory save the city costs on temporary repairs.

Also to be tried out in our fresh holes:

Aquaphalt contains a vegetable oil based binder, which contains no VOCs (volatile organic compounds), a contributor to air pollution in Boston. Many repairs with Aquaphalt last beyond ten years, much longer than the industry standard for pothole patching materials.

Neighborhoods: 
Boston
Topics: 
Driving
Free tagging: 
potholes


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Comments

By anon on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 12:47pm.

Why not build our roads better out of something other than asphalt in the first place?

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By anon² on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 1:11pm.

there's nothing better than asphalt for our climate, both in terms of repair needs and cost to benefit.

The biggest problem is the city not enforcing private contractors to be filling in work cut holes properly. If they don't just throw in loose asphalt that washes away first rain storm, they quick patch without leveling it off properly which is promptly ripped out when the frist plow of the winter goes by.

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By roadman on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 2:01pm.

the contractor doesn't compact the subgrade properly before applying the patch. So even if they level it off properly (or make the patch a bit higher than the road surface), eventually the patch will settle.

This is a particular problem when they cut long trenches in the middle of streets (Albion and Chestnut Streets in Wakefield immediately come to mind).

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By Scratchie on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 2:53pm.

Wow, what a brilliant idea. I can't believe nobody's ever thought of it before. And while they're at it, why don't they build the whole plane out of that stuff they build the black box out of? Huh?

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By craigglesnotloggedin on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 9:19pm.

They have a lot of concrete slab streets down there and they're AWFUL. for cars, bikes, everything....

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By J. Seinfeld on Fri, 03/22/2013 - 10:03am.

And why don't they just build the plane like the black box? NEWMAN!

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By nick on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 6:23pm.

Because this sounds like it's straight out of a 4 a.m. informercial. Especially:

Hole Patch advertises as easy to apply
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By Kathode on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 7:07pm.

So I can stop on my commute and fill in the holes?

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By anon on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 9:06pm.

...until somebody steals them.

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By anon on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 9:10pm.

The cynic in me has to ask 'what will happen when the kids find a different use for those bags?'

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By anon on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 11:46pm.

If I could buy some, I'd purchase 50 and sneak over the Casey bridge-overpass and use every last one of them. Then I'd encourage everyone else to chip in and do the same.

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By Kaz on Fri, 03/22/2013 - 3:57pm.

With that much silly putty, think of the gigantic size you could make Garfield and Mary Worth into!

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