When you see an asphalt milling machine for sale, you may think it is too expensive or difficult to transport. You might worry you don’t have the road repair work to justify adding it to your budget. While this may be true for large machines, there are a wide variety of machines for sale.
Many cities and towns are opting for a small asphalt milling machine or cold planer or an attachment. Often a smaller cold milling machine will do the work of a larger machine at a fraction of the cost. An attachment is easy to transport and maneuver on the job site. You can pull many attachments behind a pickup truck.
Another consideration when looking at an asphalt milling machine for sale is project options. Small cold planer or cold planer attachments pay off on a variety of different road repair and utility trench projects. You can use an asphalt milling attachment for everything from full depth reclamation to pot hole repair to utility trenching. Here some questions you might have about asphalt milling machine applications:
Can I use my asphalt milling machine for road surface corrections?
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Sometimes, the damage to the road is only surface deep or there isn’t enough budget for a complete road reconstruction. If the road base is stable, precise cutting depths remove bumps, ruts, and potholes on the road surface. An asphalt milling machine works as a cold planer to remove a specific depth of asphalt.
How do I use my asphalt milling machine or cold planer for asphalt recycling?
Small asphalt milling machines also create spec comparable product used for trench back fill. Milling or cold planing eliminates hauling and disposal of asphalt chunks. This provides a large savings in time, money, and environmental impact.
The asphalt millings become recyclable asphalt pavement or recycled asphalt product. You can use recycled asphalt product for hot and cold mix asphalt and as aggregate for road base.
Can I use an asphalt milling machine for full depth reclamation?
Full-depth reclamation pulverizes the asphalt surface with an asphalt milling machine or road reclaimer. At the same time, it combines the existing asphalt layer and mixes it with the existing asphalt road base.
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Crews then add water to increase the moisture content and better mix the asphalt millings and road base. Sometimes, project specs also call for additional base material or soil stabilizers. You can add asphalt emulsions or other binding products to increase the road stability. Often, reclaimed asphalt pavement rap mixed with road base provides enough stabilization.
The final steps are to grade, compact, and re-pave the road. Full depth reclamation eliminates many future potholes and road repairs by creating stable road base. Correctly done, full depth reclamation lasts as long as a complete road reconstruction. It is only slightly more expensive than mill and fill followed by an overlay.
Using an asphalt milling machine as a road reclaimer for full depth reclamation also saves a substantial amount of time. Richie Beyer, County Engineer with the County of Elmore, Alabama, has found this to be true.
He can now do a road repair project that used to take two weeks in four hours. This is using an asphalt milling machine as a road reclaimer. Full depth reclamation allows counties to do multiple road repair projects on the same budget.
Can I cut utility trench with an asphalt milling or asphalt grinding machine?
Public Works departments and utility contractors use an asphalt milling machine as an asphalt grinder for removing utility trench or pipe trench. An asphalt miller can cut a straight trench in asphalt and remove up to 12 inches of asphalt.
Can I use an asphalt milling machine for trench plate recessing?
An asphalt milling machine or cold planer is also great for trench plate recessing. A small asphalt milling machine can act as a cold planer for just a few inches of precise asphalt removal. This allows a trench plate to sit flush with the remaining asphalt. Many utility project specs require recessed trench plates.
Will my asphalt milling machine pay for itself?
You can use an asphalt milling machine as a cold planer for surface milling. It’s also great as a road reclaimer for full depth reclamation on road base stabilization projects. Using a cold planer or milling machine in house allows for double or triple the road repairs on the same budget.
To top it off, an asphalt milling machine saves an incredible amount of time on a utility trenching project. It grinds the asphalt more quickly and eliminates asphalt disposal time and fees.
An asphalt milling machine pays itself off in time and cost savings. You can complete multiple projects at once and work on a variety of projects from full depth reclamation to utility trenching.