Recent Repaving Damaged By Cold Weather

January 31, 2009 by Rick
Filed under: *** Residents' Articles *** 

Brrr… This winter’s been pretty darned cold. But besides the discomfort, now it’s taking a toll on our community infrastructure as well.

Repaving Heaved

Repaving Heaved

A new bump greeted me as I pulled in the other night. As you can see in the first image the recently repaved surface has heaved up above the level of Riverbend Drive, stretching and breaking the seam seal along with it. My guess is that the seam seal lost its integrity (maybe from the recent plowing?) and allowed water from the last snow/rain event to get between the paving and the ground underneath. When the temperatures plummeted the water froze.

Degree of Heave

Magnitude of Heave

The second image shows the degree of lift – a little more than an inch – in more detail. Because of the angle, it’s easy to misinterpret the image and think that it’s more. So I’ve added a couple of reference lines. That’s a six-inch ruler, and the wood block only serves to keep it from falling over.

I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the quality of the repaving work done in my driveway/court in the first place. Ruts have appeared under the wheels of some cars where they routinely park. I’m no paving engineer, but I would think that the surface should be sufficient to support parked autos without rutting. Or, if this is a characteristic of the thickness or material type we bought, then I’d expect to see ruts all over the place. Neither is the case.

Anyway, I’d expect that come spring the edges will crumble and we’ll have potholes where the repaving meets the street. The same thing is happening on the other side of Riverbend Drive, too, by the way. How are yours?

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