ME students build Bitsy Wagon to plug potholes on the road

Pothole repairs continue to be a major maintenance problem for many highway agencies. There is a critical need for finding long-lasting, cost effective materials and construction technologies for repairing potholes.

To investigate critical components associated with pothole formation and pothole repair and proposes solutions to reduce the occurrence of potholes and increase the durability of pothole repairs, the  students of  Mechanical Engineering  Dept have built the Bitsy Wagon to easily cover potholes on the road.

The project  include investigating and documenting pavement preservation activities, experimental work on traditional repair materials as well as innovative materials and technologies for pothole repairs, stress analysis of pothole repairs to identify whether certain geometric configurations are more beneficial than others, evaluating cost analyses to determine the effectiveness of various repair methods. A number of conclusions and recommendations were made.

Potholes are mainly caused by the delayed response to timely fixing common pavement distresses. Currently, there are no required specifications for patching materials. Mechanical testing can be used to select patching materials based on the estimated durability of the pothole repair, such as short-, medium-, and long-term. The students find that the machine helps in digging pits very easily and cost-effectively.This innovative idea attracted much attention in both print and electronic media.

The Team

As part of the B.Tech project, the final year students of ME Dept,   Rahul V Nair from Olari, Regil Antony from Mundur and Senjith P from Veloore developed this machine under the guidance of  Mr Vishnu Shaji  (Asst Prof, ME Dept) and Mr  Anil Paul  (Asst Prof, ME Dept).  Dr. N Ramachandran  (HoD, ME Dept) extended whole hearted support .