August 2007 Cover Story

The machine introduced at a launching ceremony at the Regional Art Gallery with Member for Robertson and Federal Minister for Roads, Jim Lloyd in attendance as well as the NSW Parliamentary Secretary for Roads, Michael Daley MLA.

Known as the ‘Sidewinder’, the machine is the product of years of research and development by Sharpe Bros and is a part of a train of equipment which the company now uses to safely and economically repair roads with a minimum of disruption to traffic.

Sharpe Bros have developed this series of technologies to repair roads. The technology includes a profiling machine which cuts a neat one metre wide trench at 100 millimetre depth along the road edge without the need to dig up a wider section of road, followed by a purpose built machine for pouring hotmix asphalt into the excavated trench, and finally compacting rollers that leave the road open for reuse by traffic.

Sharpe Bros is recognized as a leader in the roads industry, developing and providing viable solutions and technologies to improve the quality and safety of Local and State Government road networks.

Joint Managing Director, Michael Sharpe, said the family-owned company had developed the multi-million dollar ‘Sidewinder’ technologies to overcome the problems traditionally associated with road edge repair and widening.

“As anyone who has travelled Australia’s vast highways and byways knows, the usual way of repairing broken edges is to dig up the whole road and then resurface the lot. This causes major traffic disruption and is very costly,” Mr. Sharpe said.

“We thought ‘there must be a better way’ so we invested a great deal of time and money to develop this patented and patent pending equipment in our West Gosford workshop. The result is a uniquely Australian innovation which saves time, money and lives.”

According to the Federal Office of Road Safety, when traffic lanes are widened by just one metre, the rate of head-on and run-off road crashes can fall by 20%.

The Sidewinder equipment, which is now painted in the company’s distinctive trademark green, extends the life of the road and reduces traffic disruption, enabling sections of road to be repaired on a daily basis.

“That means a job which would normally take at least a week, from digging up the road to the final bitumen sealing, can be completed in a day at a much lower cost, “Mr. Sharpe said.

Mr Sharpe said that the company is presently in talks with overseas manufacturers in conjunction with Austrade, with a view to exporting the technology.

back