One of the constant battles faced by municipal governments is potholes. Now a simple full depth reclamation process using a small asphalt milling machine can actually eliminate potholing. You can find potholes on asphalt pavement everywhere: warm areas, colder climates, heavily trafficked asphalt surfaces and even rarely traveled roads.
Potholes Cause Traffic Disruption
Potholing makes for a bumpy and unpleasant ride and causes traffic accidents and expensive automobile repairs. Potholes contribute to over 100,000 accidents every year and billions of dollars in automobile damage.
Unfortunately, in most areas, pothole repair is a constant problem. Despite spending lots of money and time pothole patching, the problem seems to be getting worse. You might ask what causes potholes in the first place.
Failing Road Base Causes Potholes
Simply stated, it’s insufficient or failing road base combined with an increase of heavy truck traffic on our roads. High truck traffic passing over areas with failing road base causes the pavement to flex and the road surface to crack. This leads to the beginnings of a pothole and expensive road repair.
Big trucks aren’t the only one to blame for asphalt damage; over time cars contribute to the pothole problem too. Unfortunately, the pressure exerted by a single semi truck can be the equivalent of up to 40,000 cars.
As trucks continue to drive over road surfaces with insufficient road base, alligator cracks become larger and spread. We call this alligator cracking because it resembles an alligator’s back. As these cracked sections continue to flex under load they eventually become dislodged forming a new pothole. Water seeping through cracks speeds this erosion; and in colder climates, this water freezes and expands, increasing pothole creation and expansion.
Common Pothole Repair Methods Just Don’t Work
Then begins the seemingly never-ending cycle of pot hole patching and road repairs. Most methods start by cleaning out the pothole and then filling it with a patch. Many use high quality patching materials applied with sophisticated machines. This type of patching helps until the pothole reappears, often becoming even worse.
This filling and re-filling makes a road look like a patchwork of pavement. A common next step is to cover the entire road with a new layer of asphalt or chip seal. Even then it’s still just a matter of time before potholes and alligator cracking reappear in a never-ending cycle.
The problem is still lurking below the road surface in failing or insufficient road base. However most road repair methods treat the surface without ever addressing the real problem of failed or insufficient road base material.
Full Depth Reclamation and Road Base Stabilization Solves Pothole Problems
The solution is to solve the base problem with road base stabilization. By solving the road base problem you eliminate the source of the pothole. Luckily, road crews can solve road base problems in a cost effective and quick process called full depth reclamation.
Full-Depth Reclamation uses an asphalt milling machine that you might use for pavement milling as a road reclaimer. This pulverizes the road surface and a portion of the road base. The asphalt reclaimer blends the recycled asphalt and recycled road base together to create a new and stable road base.
Larger asphalt milling machines or road reclaimers can be expensive for a smaller organization. There are small asphalt milling machines and asphalt milling attachments that do the work of a larger machine. They also extend the life of the asphalt paving. These allow even a small town to experience the benefits of in house asphalt milling and full depth reclamation.
Sometimes the road base will need additional stabilization. You can blend asphalt binders or soil stabilizers such as additional gravel, road base, cement or even liquid additives. By recycling asphalt and road base, you eliminate most trucking and asphalt disposal costs.
Full Depth Reclamation: Green Road Repair
It is environmentally friendly for your wallet and the environment to reuse existing asphalt. Asphalt recycling is very cost effective. Now you can complete projects that used to take a week in one day by using recycled materials in place.
This significantly reduces the amount of fuel consumed and exhaust emitted from all of the equipment and trucking involved. You also eliminate the solid waste created from removing asphalt material from the road.
All of these time and cost savings are also green for your wallet because they translate directly into budget savings. Asphalt recycling allows organizations to lessen their carbon footprint all while reaping cost and time benefits.