From my email box;

So I guess Sioux Falls doesn’t have any potholes to fill, so they are selling the machine that fixes them.
Seriously – this is a machine that was new in 2006… are we really only getting four years of use out of our equipment these days?  That doesn’t exactly seem efficient.  I have underwear older than that.


It also appears to be in good working order since the auctioneer has an assurance on it. The city plays these games all the time, they can’t have anything that is too old – who cares, not their money, spend, spend, spend. Pat Costello joked once during a council meeting that whenever he would drive by a work site with private contractors and public works vehicles at it, he noticed the private contractor work trucks were like 15 years old and the public works drove brand new vehicles. It amazes me that we would cut tree removal budgets, yet not even blink twice about selling a vehicle at a third of what is was probably worth brand new.

By l3wis

14 thoughts on “Why is the city selling a 4 year old pothole patcher?”
  1. actually, think of how much money one could make, buying it, and then contracting with the city to fix pot holes.

  2. It doesn’t work. It was a bad purchase. It will be like the snow gates you will be able to buy cheap in a couple of years.

  3. John, please fill us in? How can something that doesn’t work be worth $35,000? To tell you the truth, I have seen these machines in action. Not sure how any of them could work. It would be cheaper to buy a 1976 Chevy-10 pickup, fill the back with tar and asphalt, two workers, two shovels and two good pairs of work boots. This thing looks a gigantic salt and pepper shaker.

  4. BTW, research by department heads would have told you that it doesn’t work. It is like snowgates. They work if you buy the right ones and train workers.

  5. The patcher was a good concept that was sold by engineers and consultants. Unfortunately it is expensive to opperate and not effective. Hopefully there is another sucker city out there so SF can recoup some coin.

  6. prolly designed for a populated area – you know the type – somewhere South of lat. 36 where roads don’t have to deal with freeze/thaw

  7. I still find the humor in the fact that the city brags up this “miracle machine” every spring and they provide their pothold hotline so people can call in and this vehicle can respond within 24 hours.

    So I guess it is good for PR, but it doesn’t really work that well to fix potholes. Great investment streets department!

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