Rampavement

This month is all about love so why not take the time to think about how you can take better care of your paved assets? We’ve got a plan to ensure the safety of your patrons and your investment!

When designed and built correctly, your paved asset should keep its smooth surface for years to come. However, this does not mean it will not require regular TLC. Pavement maintenance can mean a lot of things…it ranges from restriping to fixing severe distresses like potholes. It can also mean repairing damage or preventing them before they happen. Using the right maintenance treatment at the right time will ensure you get the most benefit. 

If the condition of your pavement gets pretty bad, the treatment to restore it to better condition will be more expensive. Inexpensive preventive maintenance treatment earlier in the pavement’s life cycle is worth it, if you consider it may postpone or prevent the need for much more expensive treatment later on.

Similar to any new relationship, to get the most out of your new surface, you need to have a good understanding of how to care for it. Typically, it takes 6-12 months for the surface of your asphalt to harden completely and it is advised to keep motor vehicles off new asphalt for at least three days and even longer in warmer temperatures. Here is a list of common actions that have the ability to damage the surface of your pavement, especially in its first year. 

• Backfill open edges for structural support
• Don’t use gasoline, oil, anti-freeze, or transmission fluids on asphalt
• Don’t always park vehicle in the same spot every time
• Limit heavy-duty truck traffic
• No motor vehicle traffic for at least 3 days after paving
• Avoid sharply turning vehicle tires & unnecessary acceleration
• Avoid using folding chairs on newly paved surfaces
• Keep dirt off the asphalt surface. The dirt pulls the oils out of the blacktop.
• Don’t sealcoat new asphalt during the first 12 months

Excessive weight on concentrated areas will leave indentations in the blacktop, while the listed fluids will prematurely weaken asphalt and cause failure.

Preferably, pavement maintenance should be mostly preventative. This ensures that your paved assets are always in good condition and damage is never present. A well-planned maintenance program, in coexistence with a pavement management system, can help you achieve this in a cost-effective way. 

At RAM Pavement, we wholeheartedly believe in preservation through proactive prevention. This is why we offer proactive management of your paved assets with our P3 program. This program focuses on not only preserving but also improving the lifecycle of your paved assets in order to cut your total cost of ownership. We partner with you to ensure we can identify issues before they become a problem. Here’s how:

• Our team periodically examines your paved assets
• A customized report is generated with actionable solutions to known issues
• Continued assessments and proactive care elongate the lifecycle of your assets

To learn more about our P3 program, click here or give us a call at (704) 622-1300 today!