Pottsville residents can expect to start seeing potholes filled around town next week, thanks to the city\u2019s attainment of a new pothole paver, purchased and donated to the city by Reading Anthracite Company.<\/p>\n
The new equipment is going to be a game-changer for Pottsville\u2019s infrastructure, Pottsville Mayor Tom Smith said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re taking action, getting things done,\u201d Smith said. \u201cDuring our campaign, the biggest complaints were blight and streets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tom Whitaker, superintendent of streets, said residents should start seeing the cylindrical, orange DuraPatcher tugged around by a streets department truck in downtown, high-traffic areas first as early as next week.<\/p>\n
The machine paves only over potholes, rather than from curb-to-curb, making the process quicker. According to Whitaker, only two workers are required to run the DuraPatcher and cars can drive over the newly-paved potholes immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a whole different thing from regular pothole paving, this is actually meant to be more permanent,\u201d Whitaker said.<\/p>\n
The machine itself has great longevity, too. Whitaker said the DuraPatcher should be reliable for at least 20 years.<\/p>\n
The opportunity to obtain such an expensive piece of equipment came about through a partnership with Reading Anthracite Co., after Smith reached out to the company. Rich commended the mayor for the partnership, stating that Smith is the city\u2019s first mayor to form a strong connection with the company in decades.<\/p>\n
Reading Anthracite Co. purchased the DuraPatcher for $60,000 from Stevenson Equipment in Harrisburg. The machine is valued at $104,000.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, the city will supply the oil and stone needed for the paver. Whitaker said the cost for these will be minimal, perhaps a few hundred dollars a month. The city burns through about 4 tons of blacktop for that same price point, meaning the city will save a significant amount of money, Whitaker said.<\/p>\n
Pottsville residents can report a pothole in need of repair by calling the streets department at 570-622-7690. The department\u2019s website will soon feature an online reporting tool, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pottsville residents can expect to start seeing potholes filled around town next week, thanks to the city\u2019s attainment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[182,139,28,4961,128,130,129,231,2155,729],"class_list":["post-232872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pottsville","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-schuylkill-county","tag-transportation","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}