Ecopatcher demonstrates spray‑injection pothole repair to committee; cites faster, longer‑lasting fixes

Sebastian Bolling, owner and president of EcoPatcher, demonstrated his company's spray‑injection pothole‑repair technique to the House Transportation Infrastructure Committee and answered members' questions about materials, durability and cost.

Bolling opened with a brief video showing the company process: cleaning debris from a pothole, applying a tack coat to exclude moisture, placing cleaned aggregate mixed with emulsion, topping with an additional tack coat and sweeping and tamping the repair. He said the repair shown was performed seven years earlier and remained intact. "Once the debris is removed, we add a tack seal to prevent any more moisture from entering this pothole," Bolling said during his presentation.

Bolling described the materials used (he referred to DOT‑grade materials such as AE90 or RS rapid set binders and washed limestone aggregate, usually a No. 11) and technical steps (cleaning, tack coat, emulsion plus aggregate, top tack coat, sweep and tamp). He said his crews can make repairs that are driveable within about 8–12 minutes and that his company conducts self‑audits of repairs for the first six months; he told the committee EcoPatcher recorded about a 4% failure rate in the previous year.

Members asked about weather and operational limits. Representative Frisbie asked whether rain prevented the method; Bolling said heavy moisture can be mitigated by high‑velocity air blowers mounted on the truck and that he has not encountered a depth limit that precludes repair with the method. Representative Miller asked about drying time; Bolling said repairs are ready for traffic within minutes and are faster than traditional hot‑mix repairs.

Cost and scalability were discussed. Bolling said EcoPatcher charges the city of Kalamazoo roughly $9 per square foot for repairs under its contract and said that price yielded a 32% cost savings over conventional patching when considering rework frequency; when accounting for repeated visits to the same pothole over the season, he estimated higher lifecycle savings. He said an EcoPatcher truck typically costs about $100,000–$200,000 and that the company can provide full service, lease vehicles, or train municipal crews.

Bolling said EcoPatcher works for public and private clients, including city contracts, apartment complexes, retailers and airport authorities, and described a shared‑facility arrangement with the city of Kalamazoo to keep costs down and provide rapid response. He acknowledged that municipal adoption can be slow because equipment purchase costs and labor arrangements vary across jurisdictions.

Why it matters: Committee members said faster, longer‑lasting pothole repairs could reduce maintenance costs and improve roadway safety and service. Bolling urged jurisdictions to consider procurement models—leasing, shared service or design‑build‑maintain arrangements—to improve accountability and leverage scale.

Ending: The committee thanked Bolling for the demonstration and indicated interest in exploring pilot arrangements or regional procurement models to cover multiple municipalities.