For whatever reason the pot-holes opening up around our city have been far more numerous than at any other time in the sixteen or so years I've lived here.
Frost heaves mostly.
The repair of these calls for shutting down entire lanes of traffic and paying night-shift wages to repair pavement at non-peak hours with much man power.

I propose a single trailer which could be towed at low speed behind any municipal vehicle equipped to haul a load which would have the following attachments arrayed from front to rear:

-Powerful jets of compressed air vented through forward curving lateral slits to blast debris/ice/snow/puddles/ what-have-you to the sides of the lane which will be collected by sweeper attachments at the rear sides of the trailer.
-Several rows of propane torches to dehumidify and prepare each hole for filling.
-Three stages of heated asphalt dispensers interspersed with cooled vibrating rollers.
-An excess asphalt collection conveyor.
-A liquid oxygen or nitrogen cooling unit to blast chill each hole
-A road waste collection sweeper mentioned above, (could be a secondary chase vehicle allowing extra cooling time before traffic commencement).

No stoppage of traffic.
No overtime or nightshift pay.
...and no front-wheel alignment bills which the city feels no responsibility to cover.

Win win win.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 08 2016

So basically like this, then? http://www.dailymai...st-120-seconds.html
[MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 09 2016]

Ice Road (as per [popbottle]'s idea) http://www.popularm...ture/a1290/4212314/
Sadly, Zamboni not feasible due to climate changes. [Sgt Teacup, Feb 10 2016]

As a truly northern (really north) Canadian, I feel that I am uniquely qualified to drive this zamboni. For roadwork safety purposes, I have a hunter-orange reflective toque.

[+], even if I don't get to drive.
-- Sgt Teacup, Feb 08 2016


The chase vehicle mentioned could stamp each completed patch with a certain yellow croissant logo so the citizens would know who to thank. And send their donations to. [+]
-- whatrock, Feb 09 2016


// heated asphalt dispensers //

Would it be possible to arrange for the machine to spend Sundays dispensing hot asphalt onto those elected representatives responsible for highway maintenance, and follow it up with a good quantity of feathers ?
-- 8th of 7, Feb 09 2016


If the roads were made of ice, you could use a Zamboni to repair them at halftime.

( Fitting drivers and their cars with skates. AND Fitting pedestrians with skates. AND Fitting buses with skates AND keeping the roads cold could keep the former asphalt workers employed. )
-- popbottle, Feb 09 2016


[2fries], did you, by any chance, Google "pothole filling machine"? <link>

Actually, the machine shown in the link is not particularly elegant, clever or automatic. I could do better, as could most halfbakers.

Perhaps what is needed is for a publicly-minded 'baker to invent a Ninja Pothole Zamboni integrated into his or her own vehicle. He or she could then drive around, parking briefly over potholes and filling them unobserved before driving off.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 09 2016


DOH!

See? Month late, million short, (story of my life). The real question though is why these weren't a thing back in the sixties?

It's so... obvious.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 09 2016


They don't have this already? High time they did. [+]
-- doctorremulac3, Feb 10 2016


Very cool link [Sgt Tcp]

I can't help but wonder if layers of biodegradable mulch might not make for a dilatant-ish pykrete highway which would self-heal if held suspended within an ice highway.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 10 2016


Flash-freezing isn't going to work.
-- RayfordSteele, Feb 10 2016


+ I'd like to drive this, too!
-- xandram, Feb 10 2016


Good point [2_fries]. Horsetail (Equisetum) is ubiquitous up to the tree line, and way full of silica. Now, we just need a non-lake-poisoning alternative to polyethylene glycol, and--ta da!--ice road oobleck!

Let's get together over a pint and discuss taking over the northern free worl...I mean, develop our new branch of bioengineering.

(New branch, biology. Heh heh.)
-- Sgt Teacup, Feb 10 2016


Instead of a pot-hole Zamboni, how about recruiting members of the living dead to do the job?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 10 2016


You mean zombonis?
-- the porpoise, Feb 10 2016


None other.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 10 2016


These must be operated by guys dressed like flashy, slightly paunchy, flying trapeze artists, in leotards then, who are always named The Zamboni's.
-- blissmiss, Feb 10 2016


Why would flash freezing not work [RayfordSteele]?

-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 11 2016


Newton's Law of cooling. The outside would freeze but the inside would stay quite roasty for awhile, which would probably buckle the asphalt, and the comtact zone to the old pavement wouldn't stick well.
-- RayfordSteele, Feb 12 2016



random, halfbakery