Pavement Management Program

The Pavement Management Program ensures that a high quality pavement network is sustained throughout the Village. The appropriate strategy selected for each street is determined based on a number of factors including traffic volumes, the remaining structural life of the pavement and types and severity of the distresses present. Also considered is the cost effectiveness of applying the right strategy to the right road and at the right time, thereby maximizing the life of the pavement in the most effective way. The Village evaluates all of these factors to determine the streets scheduled to be rehabilitated each year.

Pavement Distress

The two primary causes for the formation of distresses in asphalt pavement are structural loading and environmental exposure. Environmental pavement distresses are caused by oxidation of the asphalt binder in the pavement from exposure to the air, sun and water which results in the pavement becoming less flexible. This in turn results in transverse cracks across the width of the pavement. If left untreated, the cracks would allow moisture into the underlying sub-grade which can cause structural failures and subsequently potholes. Structural distresses, usually in the form of the many interconnecting cracks forming small broken pieces on the surface, are caused by fatigue of the pavement section. This can come from isolated sub-grade problems or from extensive cycles of loading that exceed the design life of the pavement.

Maintenance Methods

The Village employs a number of maintenance strategies, which includes slurry seals (warm asphalt emulsion with fine rock), cape seals (a hot asphalt cement membrane covered in fine rock followed by a slurry seal top layer), hot mix cape seals (similar to cape seal but the top layer consists of a thin hot mix overlay) as well as traditional hot mix overlays. They are applied while the pavement is in relatively good condition to delay the onset of environmental cracking. Additionally, they are valuable to use at the end of a pavement’s life to seal and bond a highly distressed pavement surface, thereby delaying the eventual and costly roadway reconstruction.

For 2015, the program applied various maintenance strategies to approximately 20 lane miles of the Village's total 224 network lane miles. The treatments consisted of 10.3 lane miles of rejuvenator sealing and 9.3 lane miles of major rehabilitation as well as the placement of 18 tons of crack sealant and 10 tons of mastic joint repair. In house localized repair maintenance consisted of over 250 repairs using 63 tons of asphalt, 1.5 tons of cold mix concrete repairs, 2,200 lf of mastic joint repair and 176 cubic yards of shoulder edge dressing.

For further information please contact Adam Koester, Public Works Roads Manager at 303-708-6149.