The Iowa Department of Transportation is using a high-tech truck to patch potholes on busy interstates.
Highway Division Administrator Tony Gustafson tells the Transportation Commission the truck allows one person to safely do the job. “Normally when we do patching, it’s at least a two person operation and our employees are out on the pavement exposed to the environment. Here this is a controlled environment in the cab of a truck,” he says.
Gustafson says the Dura Patch truck is like a rolling video game. “It’s just that one person with a joystick that controls everything on just one joystick,” he says. “There’s like half a dozen buttons on the joystick where they can control all the setting out of the emulsion, putting out the rock chips and covering it to protect it, protect traffic from the emulsion. So it’s all one operation, so it’s really slick.”…