A NORTH Shropshire road will be the latest to be repaired by a new device from Shropshire Council.

The road between Wem and Tilstock will be improved between March 29 and April 11 thanks to the authority's new Multihog road planer machines which will be tackling more potholes and other defects.

The Multevo Multihog planes off the road surface to enable a squared-off hole to be filled by a following gang. It’s quicker than having to saw-cut and break-out the defective road by hand – tackling potholes and other defects more quickly and effectively

Using the Multihog the council can reduce the likelihood of potholes forming in the short- to-medium term and cut-down on the need for road closures.

Dean Carroll, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for highways, said: “The Multihog is a hugely important part of our work to tackle potholes and improve the county’s roads. Since we started using it last year use of the Multihog has shown a dramatic improvements in permanent road repairs, and it now forms an important part of our strategy to deliver meaningful repairs to roads across Shropshire.”

Since the Multihog was officially adopted in late March 2021, the volume of the road network repaired has risen to around 150m² per gang each day, with three teams deployed across the county. This means an average of 9,000m² of road can be treated each month.

Other methods used to tackle potholes include the innovative new Texpatch process, which is being used to treat urban roads and provides a longer-lasting, smoother, neater finish compared to traditional pothole repairs.

And four Roadmaster vehicles are being used to carry out jet-patching on rural roads.

More traditional repairs by gangs are also carried out.

Since April 2021, more than 21,000 potholes have been repaired across the Shropshire Council area.