‘Hasta La Vista’ to potholes as council unveils name of new repair machine

Midlothian Council has today unveiled the winner of a competition to name its new, 13 tonne permanent pothole repair machine.

Nearly 200 entries

Council Leader Councillor Kelly Parry, Provost Debbi McCall and Roads Operations and Asset Manager Wayne Clark considered just short of 200 suggestions – from Sir Filly Connolly to Harry Potholer – before plumping for their favourite, The Tarminator.

A mighty machine

Councillor Parry said: “We thought this was the perfect name for a powerhouse of a machine that’s our latest ‘weapon’ in the ‘fight’ against potholes.

Arnie would approve

“Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger filmed himself recently filling in what he thought was a giant pothole. The former Mr Universe can still put his back into it but imagine how much easier it would have been if he’d had our Tarminator?”

Takes half-an-hour

The Tarminator – a JCB Pothole Pro - can typically do a pothole that would take half a day in 30 minutes.

Tackling repairs

Provost Debbi McCall said Wayne and his team plan to repair 1,000 potholes permanently in the first six months of the machine’s use. 

Revolutionary technology

She added: “The Pothole Pros’ revolutionary technology means the roads crews can cut, crop and clean with one machine and all they need to do is add tar.

Permanent fix

“And the good news is it’s a permanent fix that should last the lifetime of the road so hopefully there’s no need to say ‘I’ll be back’.”

An investment

JCB Pothole Pro Manager Ben Rawding said: “We are delighted that Midlothian Council has joined the growing number of local authorities in Scotland investing in the JCB Pothole Pro.

Lives up to its name

“The JCB Pothole Pro really is living up to its name by fixing potholes quickly and permanently.

Pothole free

“It is helping to keep more than 10,000 miles of Scotland’s roads pothole free, thanks to investments in the machine by five leading local authorities, which are responsible for maintaining more than one third of the country’s highway network.”

Our competition winner

The winner of the competition is Craig Birkmyre. As well as having his winning suggestion on the Pothole Pro, Craig also gets a free family tubing session at Midlothian Snowsports Centre.

Other great names

Just some of our favourite suggestions other than The Tarminator:

• Jimmy Tartruck
• Nat King Hole
• The Asphalt Avenger
• And if we’d had two Pothole Pros – Fill and Holey
• Godfilla
• Deep Purphole
• Holey Moley
• Phil Mahole
• Patch Master

Entries

In total four people suggested The Tarminator. Each entrant was given a number and a random number generator was used to choose who was the ultimate winner.