GB2482315A

GB2482315A - Pothole repair method

Info

Publication number: GB2482315A
Application number: GB1012680.3A
Authority: GB
Inventors: William Samuel Bath
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2010-07-29
Filing date: 2010-07-29
Publication date: 2012-02-01
Also published as: GB201012680D0

Abstract

The method comprises forming a cavity 14 in the road 10 around an existing pothole 12 and then filling at least some of the cavity with a preformed plug 16. The plug is preferably attached to the road, either by bonding using adhesive such as wet cement or tarmac or alternatively by heating the plug and/or road, preferably through a chemical reaction. Alternatively the plug may be pinned to the road. The plug may fill the whole cavity or it may fill only a portion of the cavity with the remainder being filled by a fluid filling material. The plug may be formed from more than one prefilled part. Also claimed is a plug, which is preferably compressed prior to installation and may include a heating element such as a chemical that reacts with water, to provide heat during installation. Also claimed is a method for making a preformed plug.

Description

POTHOLE REPAIR METHOD AND APPARATUS

The present invention relates to a method of repairing a road having a pothole using a preformed plug. The method is also applicable to repair of a pavement, a path or similar such surfaces. Where the term road is used in this specification, it is intended to cover surfaces such as pavements, paths etc. Conventionally, potholes in road surfaces are repaired by pouring a road repair material in fluid form (e.g. molten road material containing ingredients such as tarmac, cement and bitumen) into the pothole until the upper surface of the fluid material in the pothole is substantially at the same level as the surrounding road surface. Sometimes, as the fluid material sets and becomes solid it may be further compacted by applying pressure via the upper surface of the setting material. This compacting process is usually carried out by a person repairing the pothole and can help to remove air pockets in the setting material. These air pockets are undesirable since if they remain in the repaired road, then over time as traffic passes over the road, the air pockets provide areas of weakness which may cause the road surface to subside or collapse, and subsequently cause the upper surface of the road to become uneven.

According to an aspect of the invention there is provided a method of repairing a road having a pothole, the method comprising forming a cavity in the road, the cavity including the pothole, and filling at least some of the cavity with a preformed plug.

Advantageously a quicker and more efficient method of repairing a road is provided by the invention. The preformed plug which is used to fill the cavity can be consistently controlled to have materials and properties as required or desired. For example, the preformed plug might, optionally, be a preformed plug which has had excess air removed from it during its formation.

Optionally the method comprises attaching the preformed plug to the road. The attaching might be achieved by bonding, for example by fusing the plug and the road together by heating the plug, the road or both the plug and the road. This heating might comprise carrying out a chemical reaction which releases heat. Advantageously, attaching the plug to the road minimises the likelihood of movement between the plug and the road, which minimises the likelihood of degradation over time of the repaired road.

Bonding the preformed plug to the road may comprise placing an adhesive such as wet cement, bitumen, molten tarmac or a similar material between the preformed plug and the road.

Additionally, or alternatively, to attaching by bonding, the attaching might comprise pinning the preformed plug to the road. For example, the plug may be stapled to the road to restrict or prevent movement of the plug relative to the rest of the road, and optionally to maintain a continuous surface. The pinning might be achieved in combination with the bonding. For example, a pin might be located in fluid road material, which subsequently sets, between the plug and the road.

The preformed plug may be arranged to form a continuous surface with the road. Advantageously, a smoother repaired surface is thereby provided for traffic travelling along the road.

The preformed plug may fill the whole cavity. Advantageously, the amount of filling material required to fill the cavity in addition to the preformed plug is minimised.

Optionally, the method comprises, after filling at least some of the cavity with the preformed plug, filling the remainder of the cavity with a fluid filling material, such as molten tarmac, wet cement, bitumen etc. Advantageously, the entire cavity becomes completely filled and the pothole is completely repaired without leaving gaps. Such gaps may cause later degradation of the road.

The method may comprise reshaping the preformed plug in order to form a continuous surface with the road. The reshaping might be achieved by melting or shaving the preformed plug. Advantageously, a preformed plug of a particular, standard size can be used to fill cavities of different depths and then the repairing finished off by reshaping the standard plug to provide the advantages associated with forming a continuous surface with the road. Therefore, the number of different sizes of preformed plug which need to be provided is reduced. Forming the cavity may comprise forming a regularly shaped cavity. Examples of a regularly shaped cavity might be a cylindrical cavity or a cuboid cavity. Forming a regularly shaped cavity allows for easier forming of the cavity. For example, a cylindrical cavity can easily be formed by conventional techniques such as core drilling. Also, it might be easier to form regularly shaped preformed plugs for filling the cavity.

The preformed plug may comprise more than one preformed part.

Optionally each preformed part comprises a regular shape such as a cuboid or cylinder. If the preformed plug comprises more than one preformed part then there is provided a system in which cavities of different sizes can be filled with different numbers of the same preformed part. This might allow for the provision of preformed parts in a smaller number of different sizes, and which will still be useful for filling cavities of many different sizes. Therefore, potholes of different sizes might be repaired using preformed parts of only a few different sizes.

Where the method comprises attaching the preformed plug to the road and the preformed plug comprises more than one preformed part, the step of attaching may comprise attaching the preformed parts to each other or to the road or both. In this way, movement between the preformed parts and the road may be reduced.

According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a pothole plug for use in road repair, the pothole plug comprising a preformed plug.

The pothole plug may comprise a regular shape, such as a cuboid or a cylinder.

The pothole plug may comprise rough or bevelled edges or surfaces or both to aid attaching, especially by bonding, to a road. The enhanced attaching might reduce the amount of movement between the plug and the road to provide a repaired road which is less likely to degrade over time.

The pothole plug may comprise a road material, such as tarmac, cement, or any similar combination thereof.

The pothole plug may comprise a preformed plug which has had excess air removed from it during formation. The pothole plug may comprise a compressed preformed plug.

The pothole plug may comprise a heating element arranged to provide heat at a surface of the plug for aiding bonding of the plug to the road.

Advantageously, easy and accurate bonding of the plug to the road is facilitated by this feature. The heating element may comprise a chemical arranged to release heat during a chemical reaction. For example the heating element might comprise magnesium or potassium and may be arranged to be reacted with water to release heat when required to aid the bonding of the plug to the road.

The pothole plug may comprise layers of different materials.

Advantageously, different layers of materials can be provided to provide a stronger plug or plug which is less likely to degrade or a plug which offers some flexibility, or any other property as desired. The layers of different materials might be arranged to correspond to layers of different materials in the road. When repairing a pothole plug it may be known that the road contains layers of different materials in advance, or it may only become apparent upon forming the cavity in the road. Accordingly, a cavity filling which more closely matches the material of the road is provided. This advantage is true also for embodiments of the invention where the pothole plug does not comprise layers of different materials -upon forming a cavity, it might become apparent that a preformed plug of a certain material or composition is required or desired.

According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of making the preformed plug of the previous aspect, the method comprising forming the plug from component parts and pressing the component parts to remove air pockets from the preformed pothole plug.

The preformed pothole plug can be made in a controlled environment to provide a filling material for a pothole in a road which will have fewer air pockets than a filling material for a pothole which is installed according to conventional pothole repair methods.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figures la to ic illustrate different state of a road surface during its repair according to the method of one embodiment of this invention; Figure 2 shows a preformed pothole plug according to an embodiment of the invention; Figure 3 shows a preformed pothole plug according to another embodiment; Figure 4a to 4c show a sectional view through a road surface having different sized cavities formed within it during the repair method of this invention; Figures 5a to Sd show different states of a road during its repair according to a method of another embodiment of the invention; Figure 6 shows a cross-sectional view through a road surface having had a cavity formed therein according to the method of an embodiment of this invention, the cavity being filled with a preformed plug formed of more than one preformed part according to a particular example of this invention; and Figure 7 shows an example of a preformed pothole plug formed of layers of different materials.

Referring to Figures la to ic, a first embodiment of this invention provides a method of repairing a road (10) having a pothole (12). Figure la shows the pothole (12) in the road (10). The method comprises forming a cavity (14) in the road, the cavity (14) including the pothole (12). Figure lb shows the cavity (14). The pothole is also shown in dashed lines to make clear that the cavity includes the potholes completely. Figures la to lc are shown in plan view and it can be seen that the cavity (14) surrounds the outermost extent of the pothole (12). In this example, the cavity (14) appears circular in plan view, and is cylindrical. In other embodiments the cavity may be cuboid or cone shaped or any other regular shape, particularly shapes which are easy to form by drilling. In yet other embodiments the cavity may be irregularly shaped. In this particular embodiment the cylindrical cavity (14) is formed by core drilling into the road.

The method further comprises filling at least some of the cavity (14) with a preformed plug (16). As shown in Figure lc, in this embodiment the preformed plug (16) appears circular in plan view, since it is cylindrical.

In this particular embodiment the preformed plug (16) substantially fills the entire cavity. There is a small gap (18) between the preformed plug (16) and the inner surface of the cavity (14) to allow the preformed plug (16) to be slotted into the cavity (14). In Figure lc, the size of the gap (18) relative to the size of the preformed plug (16) is exaggerated for clarity. In this embodiment the upper surface of the preformed plug (16) and the surrounding road (10) is substantially level and so the road (10) is effectively repaired by slotting the preformed plug (16) into the preformed cavity (14).

Advantageously, this method of repair is much quicker and more efficient than conventional repair methods. The preformed plug (16) can be preformed to have desired properties by virtue of materials used in the preforming process, or the techniques used in the preforming process, or a combination of both. For example, Figure 2 shows another cylindrical preformed plug (20) which has been preformed by using a particular road material which matches the material of a road in which a pothole is to be repaired. The preformed plug (20) is made from the desired ingredients to achieve the necessary desired end composition. These ingredients, or component parts, are pressed together to remove air pockets from the preformed pothole plug (20). This pressing process is vigorously carried out to reduce the likelihood of the pothole plug collapsing or subsiding or becoming uneven as traffic such as pedestrians, cars or other vehicles passes over it. In contrast, conventional pothole repair methods rely upon workers producing a road filling material in fluid form at the site of a pothole which is to be repaired. Therefore there can be significant variation in the constituent parts used to make the filling material. This variation can lead to different amounts of trapped air pockets in the final filling material. The workers on site are under time pressure to prepare and possibly press the fluid filling material before it sets into place. The use of a preformed plug in the present invention allows for a higher quality, more consistent composition of the filling material.

In another embodiment of the invention the method comprises bonding the preformed plug to the road. One way of achieving this is by fusing the plug and the road together, for example by heating the plug, the road or both. An example of the material which is used to form the plug or the road might be tarmac. Sufficient heating of the tarmac has the effect that it becomes fluid, at least in the region of the heating. As the tarmac cools, it will set and fuse together the plug and the road.

One way of providing this heating effect is to carry out a chemical reaction which releases heat. Figure 3 shows a preformed plug (22) according to another embodiment which includes a magnesium strip (24) around its circumference. The magnesium strip (24) is arranged so that when the preformed plug (22) is placed in a formed cavity, the magnesium strip (24) is arranged to be reacted with water to release sufficient heat to provide effective fusing between the plug (22) and the surrounding road. It will be apparent that in other embodiments different chemicals may be used to provide the required release of heat. In yet further embodiments, the required heat might be provided by directly heating the plug or road with a flame, e.g. via a blowtorch or similar tool. Or, the heat may be provided by pouring a molten road material on the plug or road.

In yet another embodiment, the bonding between the preformed plug and the road is provided by placing an adhesive such as cement, bitumen or molten tarmac or any other suitable bonding material between the preformed plug and the road. For example, referring to Figure lc this might be achieved by pouring bitumen in the gap (18) after the preformed plug (16) is placed in the cavity (14). In other examples, the gap 18 might be larger relative to the size of the preformed plug (16), and the gap might be effectively filled by pouring in bitumen or molten tarmac or wet cement or another material. Using this type of bonding material to fill the gap (18) provides the effect that there is no substantial discontinuity between the preformed plug (16) and the rest of the road (10). The surface between the plug (16) and the rest of the road (10) can be made substantially level by filling the adhesive to a desired level.

In some embodiments the edges or surfaces of the preformed plug are rough or bevelled. This increases the surface area for bonding purposes between the plug and the road to provide a more secure bonded connection, which results in a smoother road surface and one which is less likely to become uneven quickly.

Referring to Figures 4a to 4c, there is shown a cross-sectional view through the road (10) having the cavity (14) formed therein. During forming of the cavity (14a), in Figure 4a, the cavity has been formed to a first depth, in Figure 4b the cavity (14b) has been formed to a deeper second depth, and in Figure 4c the cavity (14c) has been formed to a third, even deeper depth. When repairing a pothole according to this invention, workers may form cavities to slightly different depths for different reasons. For example it may not be possible to completely accurately drill a cavity of a particular depth using the tools they have available. In some situations, the material in the road surface may change at a particular depth which makes drilling further more difficult.

In other situations, the preformed cavity may be accidentally formed to a depth which is too great.

The preformed plug (16) shown in Figures 4a to 4c is of exactly the same size in each case.

Referring to Figure 4a, the preformed plug (16) is placed in the cavity (14a) and its upper surface (26) is not level with an upper surface (28) of the surrounding road (10). The upper surface (26) of the preformed plug (16) is raised above the upper surface (28) of the road (10). In this case, the preformed plug substantially fills the whole cavity (14a) and extends beyond it. The method of this embodiment of the invention therefore also comprises reshaping the preformed plug 16 in order to form a continuous surface with the road. This reshaping might be done by melting or shaving the top of the preformed plug (16). In this embodiment the reshaping is achieved by a combination of melting and shaving. The melting is achieved by applying heat sufficient to melt the surface of the preformed plug (16) so that its upper surface (26) becomes fluid. The shaving is achieved by using known tools and techniques.

In this embodiment the shaving is carried out before the melting step. In other embodiments the melting step may be carried out before the shaving step. The gap between the preformed plug (16) and the walls of the cavity (14a) is formed with molten bitumen to aid bonding in this

example.

Referring to Figure 4b, the cavity (14b) is formed such that the upper surface (26) of the preformed plug (16) is substantially level with the upper surface (28) of the surrounding road (10). In this example, the preformed plug (16) substantially fills the entire cavity (14b).

Referring to Figure 4c, the preformed cavity (14c) is of a depth such that the preformed plug (16) does not entirely fill it. The upper surface of the preformed plug (16) is at a lower level than the upper surface (28) of the surrounding road (10). In this example, the method of the invention comprises filling the remainder of the cavity with a fluid filling material after the preformed plug has filled at least some of the cavity (14c). In this example the fluid filling material is molten tarmac and it is placed, e.g. by pouring, on top of the upper surface (26) of the preformed plug (16) up until the level shown as a dashed line (30) in order to form a continuous surface with the upper surface (28) of the road (10). The solution of this embodiment provides an advantage over conventional pothole repair techniques since only a small amount of fluid filling material is used to repair the pothole and so the likelihood of early degradation of the road is reduced.

It is an optional feature of the invention that the preformed plug comprises a regular shape, such as a cuboid or a cylinder shape. This optional feature is advantageous since regular shapes are generally easier to form than irregular shapes. Also, regularly shaped cavities are usually more easily formed than irregularly shaped cavities. For example, core drilling is a known technique for producing cylindrical cavities in road surfaces. Forming cuboid cavities in roads is also well known. For the avoidance of doubt, the term cuboid is intended to cover cavities and plugs of rectangular cross-section, whether square or not.

Referring to Figures 5a to 5c, there is illustrated the road (10) having the cavity (12) as previously described, but being repaired according to the method of this invention using a cuboid cavity (32). As shown in Figure 5c, there is also provided a cuboid preformed plug (34). The cuboid preformed plug (34) substantially fills the entire cavity (32), and has an adhesive material poured in the gap (36) between the preformed plug (34) and the cavity (32) to enhance bonding as previously described.

Referring to Figure Sd, the preformed plug (34) may be formed of more than one preformed part. In this example, the preformed plug (34) is formed of three preformed parts (34a, 34b, 34c). Each preformed part in this example comprises a cuboid shape. Again, in the example of Figure Sd, the preformed plug (34) fills substantially the entire cavity. In the gap (36) between the preformed plug and the cavity (32), a fluid drilling material is poured to enhance bonding. In some embodiments, the adhesive filling material is also poured between the preformed parts (34a, 34b, 34c) to enhance bonding between them.

Referring to Figure 6, there is shown a cross-sectional view illustrating an alternative arrangement of preformed parts (34d, 34e) forming a preformed plug, which is cylindrical. This preformed plug is placed in a cylindrical cavity (38) in the road (10). As can be seen, the preformed parts (34d, 34e) are placed on top of each other to form the preformed plug.

The present invention, whether using whole preformed plugs or preformed plugs made up of preformed parts allows for easy provision of preformed plugs or parts of different standard or predefined sizes or shapes. At the time of repairing a pothole, this is taken into consideration when deciding upon the size and shape of the cavity to be formed. Therefore there is provided a convenient method for repairing a pothole using only a few standard sizes of preformed plugs.

Alternatively, when deciding to repair a pothole, the method of this invention allows a repairer to assess the size of the pothole for a preformed plug to be made to fit a cavity which will need to be formed as required.

Either way, there is provided a pothole repair method which results in an improved road surface relative to previous methods. The method is also efficient compared to previous repair methods.

A preformed pothole plug may comprise layers of different materials.

This may provide a desired strength profile. For example, layers of different materials may be provided in order to match layers of different materials present within a road. As an example, Figure 7 shows a cylindrical preformed plug (40) having a concrete base (42) and a tarmac layer (34) above it. There is a saw tooth edge between the tarmac and the concrete to enhance bonding between them during manufacture of the preformed plug (40). The uneven edge provides an increased surface area between the two layers. The tarmac is set into the concrete during manufacture. The plug (40) is compressed a number of times to remove any excess air pockets. Apart from compressing other known techniques to remove excess air may also be used.

Various modifications may be made to the present invention without departing from its scope. For example, different shapes of preformed plug may be provided, different materials may be used for the preformed plug, different techniques to reshape the preformed plug may be used, different bonding materials may be used, and any other sensible variation.

As an alternative, or in addition to attachment of the preformed plug to the road by bonding, the invention might comprise attachment to the road by pinning the plug to the base of the road, or by any other suitable means.

Claims

CLAIMS: 1. A method of repairing a road having a pothole, the method comprising: forming a cavity in the road, the cavity including the pothole; and filling at least some of the cavity with a preformed plug.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising attaching the preformed plug to the road.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein the attaching comprises bonding the preformed plug to the road.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the bonding comprises fusing the plug and the road together by heating the plug, the road or both.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein the heating comprises carrying out a chemical reaction which releases heat.
6. The method of any of claims 3 to 5 wherein the bonding comprises placing an adhesive such as wet cement or bitumen or molten tarmac or similar between the preformed plug and the road.
7. The method of any of claims 2 to 6 wherein the attaching comprises pinning the preformed plug to the road.
8. The method of any preceding claim wherein the preformed plug is arranged to form a continuous surface with the road.
9. The method of any preceding claim wherein the preformed plug fills the whole cavity.
10. The method of any of claims 1 to 8 comprising after filling at least some of the cavity with the preformed plug, filling the remainder of the cavity with a fluid filling material, such as molten tarmac.
11. The method of any of claims 8 to 10 comprising reshaping the preformed plug, for example by melting or shaving, in order to form a continuous surface with the road.
12. The method of any preceding claim wherein forming a cavity comprises forming a regularly shaped cavity, such as a cylindrical cavity or a cuboid cavity.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein forming a cavity comprises core drilling a cylindrical cavity in the road.
14. The method of any preceding claim wherein the preformed plug comprises more than one preformed part.
15. The method of claim 14 wherein each preformed part comprises a regular shape, such as a cuboid or cylinder.
16. The method of claim 14 or claim 15, when dependent on any of claims 2 to 13, wherein the step of attaching comprises attaching the preformed parts to each other or to the road or both.
1?. A pothole plug for use in road repair, the pothole plug comprising a preformed plug.
18. The pothole plug of claim 1? comprising a regular shape, such as a cuboid or a cylinder.
19. The pothole plug of claim 18 comprising rough or bevelled edges or surfaces or both to aid attaching to a road.
20. The pothole plug of any of claims 17 to 19 comprising a road material, such as tarmac, cement, or any similar combination thereof.
21. The pothole plug of any of claims 17 to 20 comprising a preformed plug which has had excess air removed from it during formation.
22. The pothole plug of claim 21 comprising a compressed preformed plug.
23. The pothole plug of any of claims 17 to 22 comprising a heating element arranged to provide heat at a surface of the plug for aiding bonding of the plug to the road.
24. The pothole plug of claim 23 wherein the heating element comprises a chemical arranged to release heat during a chemical reaction, such as magnesium or potassium during a reaction with water.
25. The pothole plug of any of claim 17 to 24 comprising layers of different materials.
26. A method of making the preformed pothole plug of any of claims 17 to 25 comprising: forming the plug from component parts, and pressing the component parts to remove air pockets from the preformed pothole plug.
27. The method of repairing a road, the pothole plug, or the method of making the preformed pothole plug substantially as herein described with reference to any one or more of the accompanying drawings.