What is asphalt milling or cold planing?
Asphalt milling or cold planing is the process of removing all or a portion of the asphalt surface before road repair. An asphalt milling machine or cold milling machine uses a rotating drum with cutting teeth. This pulverizes the asphalt into recycled asphalt product RAP. There are several applications for asphalt milling.
Partial depth asphalt removal removes only a portion of the existing asphalt pavement. With this type of cold planing or asphalt milling, you remove just enough asphalt to repair the asphalt surface. Many organizations use this for problems like dips, ruts, alligator cracking and pot holes.
Asphalt milling machines and cold planers have adjustable depth control gauges that allow you control your milling depth. You remove surface problems and repave the milled surface with an asphalt overlay, creating a smooth asphalt surface.
Full depth removal involves removing the entire asphalt surface and underlying layers of road base material. Using your cold planer, you can perform full depth reclamation, pulverizing the existing pavement and mixing it with the road base.
Full depth reclamation is comparable to a full road reconstruction, but it is much faster and less expensive. Full depth reclamation is also preferable to partial depth asphalt removal because it addresses the structural problems in the road base. Because of this, you provide a long term fix to the potholes, alligator cracking and rutting.
What are my asphalt milling machine or cold planer options?
There are many machine options for milling and cold planing. It can be confusing to choose the correct equipment for your asphalt repairs. Determining the scope of your road repair project can help you decide which equipment is best for you.
It’s also important to consider future road construction that your organization may want to tackle. A small skid steer cold planer might work for some small road repairs. However, with a larger asphalt milling attachment, you can mill larger quantities. You can also plan future full depth reclamation projects.
Asphalt millings are reusable in a variety of ways if you can manage the material size. Some examples of ways to use asphalt millings include trench backfill, road base, driveways, and shoulders along roads or highways. Make sure the cold planer or asphalt miller you look at can produce the size of recycled material you will need.
Skid Steer Cold Planer Attachments
Your host vehicle’s hydraulics propels a skid steer cold planer or milling attachment. Skid steer cold planers come in a variety of sizes. They average a max of 5-6 inches of milling depth, although some can mill up to nine inches deep. A skid steer attachment can mill anywhere from 13 – 47 inches wide, depending on the model.
A skid steer cold planer is much less expensive than larger asphalt milling machines and cold planers. One of the cons of these attachments is the time it takes to complete a project. For example, a 100-foot project could take all day to complete.
It is much more difficult to control the size of the asphalt millings with a skid steer attachment. This may limit your ability to reuse the millings as recycled asphalt. Any length of project includes heavy vibrations for the skid steer operator, making these machines practical for only the smallest jobs.
Larger Asphalt Milling Attachments
Larger asphalt milling attachments connect to your loader or backhoe but have their own engines and hydraulic systems. They can do the same project that would take a skid steer cold planer all day in 30 minutes. They have asphalt milling widths from 30 inches to eight feet and cutting depths of up to 12 inches.
With 120 – 260 horse power engines, large asphalt milling attachments rival a self-contained asphalt milling machine or cold planer. These larger machines also have an adjustable hydraulic baffle that controls the flow of material. This allows you to manage your material size. You can then use the recycled asphalt for road base or trench backfill.
Larger asphalt milling attachments pull behind a work truck on their own trailer. With quick connect technology, they are easy to connect to your back hoe or loader on the job site. Their asphalt milling speed coupled with ease of transport make them a good option for large and small asphalt removal jobs.
These machines are also ideal for full depth reclamation projects. Their cutting width allows you to mill one lane of traffic instead of closing whole sections of road.
Large Asphalt Milling Machines
Large asphalt milling machines and cold planers can mill maximum depths of 13 inches and have milling widths of 7 feet. With approximately 350 to 400 hp engines, this milling equipment is very powerful at pavement milling your road surface. They also include a conveyor belt that sends the asphalt millings directly into your dump truck. The cost of these machines, combined with arranging for their transportation, make them ideal for only the largest cold planing projects.
The Asphalt Milling Machine or Cold Planer You Need Depends on Your Budget and Road Maintenance Projects
Choosing the correct asphalt milling machine or cold planer depends on what you need to accomplish. A small milling attachment for your skid steer might work well on small road patches. For the very largest of projects, you will need a large asphalt milling machine or cold planer.
To stretch your budget dollars further, consider a larger asphalt milling attachment or cold planer. They are smaller and easy to transport, but provide many of the production benefits of a larger machine. You can purchase a small asphalt milling machine that completes large and small projects. This will give you the flexibility to make a wide variety of road repairs in less time with less money.