The City of Fitchburg DPW has purchased and placed in service new equipment to remove potholes. Mayor Stephen L. DiNatale inaugurated the new skidsteer-mounted cold planer this morning on Temple Street as DPW crew’s grinded away potholes. The new Bobcat skidsteer was purchased at a cost of $51,000 and the cold-planner attachment cost and additional $38,000. The total cost of $89,000 was funded through the Mayor’s appropriation of Fiscal Year 2019 available funds.
“I am very happy that the city has added a new tool to the DPW’s toolbox to help address road repairs. This machine will help with small areas throughout our city that are plagued with potholes. Although this is not a full remedy to address our New England roads, this is conscious effort of my administration to tackle road repairs as much as we can afford,” said Mayor DiNatale.
The cold planer is capable of grinding out a square yard of pavement in 3 seconds. Instead of just filling potholes with hot-mix, DPW will start grinding down the top layer of asphalt on roadway sections that have significant cracking and potholes and then repave the section with asphalt to produce a smoother and longer lasting repair.
In addition to the cold planner attachment, the new Bobcat skidsteer is capable of using other attachments including sweepers, buckets, and brush cutting implements.