(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Transportation is using a high-tech truck to patch potholes on busy interstates. Highway Division Administrator Tony Gustafson tells the Transportation Commission the truck allows one person to safely do the job. “Normally when we do patching, it’s at least a two person operation and our employees are out on the pavement exposed to the environment. Here this is a controlled environment in the cab of a truck,” he says. Gustafson says the Dura Patch truck is like a rolling video game.

The DOT Dura Patch truck filling a pothole. (DOT photo)

“It’s just that one person with a joystick that controls everything on just one joystick,” he says. “There’s like half a dozen buttons on the joystick where they can control all the setting out of the emulsion, putting out the rock chips and covering it to protect it, protect traffic from the emulsion. So it’s all one operation, so it’s really slick.” Gustafson says they plan to eventually purchase two more trucks. ” The cost of this patching truck was just over 300-thousand dollars, so it’s equivalent to a fully decked out snowplow,” he says This truck has been operating on the interstate roadways in District 4, which is in the southwest corner of the state.

Gustafson says it has been a hit with employees. “They really enjoy the dura patcher, there’s nothing but positive comments, they can fill the holes twice as fast with less people,” he says. Gustafson says the two new trucks would operate in District 1 in central Iowa, and District 5 in southeast Iowa.