Asphalt pavements have been widely used for many years to surface roads, parking lots, and even airports. However, this material is adversely affected by weather, along with other environmental conditions. As much as possible, you want to make it last longer as it helps make your property safer and increase its value. For this reason, it’s vital that you inspect your pavement regularly and know how to recognize any issues before they become a disaster.
In this article, we will share six types of asphalt paving damage and how to fix them:
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Linear & Transverse Cracking
These are fractures that occur along the pavement joints, which can mean that the joints are not constructed well. Another reason is that there’s shrinkage on the asphalt surface or there are everyday fluctuations in temperature along with excess water in and around the surface and cracks in one or more sub-layers. To prevent this, be sure to improve the drainage and fill the holes with a combination of asphalt and sand or emulsion slurry.
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Block Cracking
These are splits in the shapes of squares or circles in the pavement, which indicate that the installer used an old mix or the mix was extremely dry when the surface was laid. The good news is that this type of damage does not get into the sub-layers. Because of this, you can still use thin overlays or surface treatments to seal the cracks and restore the integrity of the asphalt.
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Edge Cracking
These are long splits that appear along the exterior edges of your pavement. Cracks on the edges result from dry or shrinking soil, poor drainage, or heavy vegetation and traffic along the outer edge road. You can fix this by filling the holes with an asphalt crack seal or emulsion. Aside from this, you need to put in more work to repair drainage around the asphalt and remove the vegetation from the paved surface’s edges.
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Alligator Cracking
These are numerous small breaks in a localized area that looks like alligator skin. When you see this, it is an indicator that there’s a flaw in the installation or the surface’s design, or there’s excessive loads and poor drainage combined with significant fluctuations in temperature. In this case, it will need full-depth patches, strengthening, and restoring the surface’s integrity that will prevent future splits.
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Reflection Cracking
These are straight fractures along the surface that reflect sub-layer cracking, sub-layer joints, or a shift in the sub-layers. Sometimes, they form a grid across the surface. What you can do here is to fill the cracks with sealants and asphalt fill mixtures that will help prevent moisture from getting into the surface.
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Slippage Cracking
These cracks, which are characterized by deep open gaps or wrinkles, may look like the asphalt is slipping along the surface of the pavement. This happens when the top layer fails to adhere correctly to the layer beneath it or too much sand was used in the mix. To solve this, it will need full or partial depth patches to seal the breaks fully.
Conclusion
Knowing how to recognize these pavement cracks is essential. You don’t want things to get worse, which is why you must take action and repair them right away. When you know how to identify the signs, you get to save more money and time in the long run when it comes to your asphalt pavement!
Let our professional paving contractors in Monmouth County, NJ, help repair your asphalt paving. We have over 20 years of experience in the industry, and we only use high-quality equipment to restore life back to your surface. Get in touch with us today to see how we can help!