Sarnia's new "hot box" is the talk of the town, according to City Councillor George Vandenberg.
He highlighted the equipment, used to fix potholes, as a "good news story" during a recent meeting.
"This is our new acquisition at the public works department," Vandenberg said. "It's called a hot box. This thing has hot asphalt coming out of it, about 285 degrees Fahrenheit."
Vandenberg said he was invited to see the apparatus in action, and shared photos of a demonstration crews gave him in the Wiltshire Park area.
"This is over on Danbury Court. This machine heats the product inside, it recycles the product, it takes the stuff that they use to dump at the site on St. Andrew's Street, they can reuse it. Cook it and put it [the asphalt] [back] in [the hole]," he said.
Vandenberg explained that the hot mix asphalt is kept in a workable state, making it easier to be compacted into the ground.
"What's interesting is this is not a cold patch material," he said. "The cold patch falls apart. The hot patch stays together. It should stay together for a long time."
Vandenberg said the public works department is confident its purchase will pay off.
"This should save the city an awful lot of money over the years. In fact, in four years, [staff] figure they could break-even on the money that we've been losing," Vandenberg added.
He said he's been getting a lot of public feedback.
"People like it! There's a lot of potholes in this city. This machine works and this patch will work for a long time," Vandenberg said.
