Is your driveway or parking lot a walking liability?
You may have noticed it walking to the mailbox or a into a store that you frequently visit and thought to yourself “well jeez that wasn’t there before.” Your toe catches just a little bit of jagged pavement sticking up above the rest and sends you stumbling forward like a running back trying to pick up that extra yardage for the first down. Now it may not sound like a big deal to most or that I’m over exaggerating the level of danger that presence it’s self here. But you’re most likely only considering your current health and not necessarily the age and condition of all who cross your pavement. If this was your grandfather or grandmother who tripped it could easily result in a broken wrist, fractured or dislocated elbows and shoulders, hips, or worse. Slip and fall injuries happen all winter long but they’re more prominent from late February to early April because the ground is dry and your guard is down.
So you might be asking what causes this phenomenon and can it be prevented?
Everyone always assumes the cold is what causes the most problems with asphalt and it can be to an extent. Fresh pavement is definitely more susceptible to snowplowing and heavy use of de-icers. But the biggest problem is the moisture! Every time it snows or rains moisture is penetrating your asphalt and getting down into the base. Every crack left wide open and untreated is a potential time bomb waiting to go off. So as the water starts collecting in these cracks and slowly building up underneath the driveway eventually comes along a cold day or a cold night. As the temperature drops and that water starts to freeze it begins to expand. With no where to go the water expansion will build up enough force to lift up on the pavement causing areas to heave and cracks to widen. Now the wider the crack or the more frequent they’re the more water your pavement is taking on. So what may seem like a beautiful 50° day in March with snow piles beginning to melt is actually a worse case scenario for your pavement when temperatures go back down to 28° at night. The constant back and forth temperature fluctuations and the excess moisture from rain and melting snow piles is just to much. One minute the earth is frozen next it’s thawed out and over saturated with water and then before you know it’s back to frozen. It’s a never ending cycle of destruction that can last 30-40+ days here, and every year the weather is a little different.
No matter what we know the problem is unavoidable, we cannot control the weather and nobody understands that better then a sealcoating contractor. Not only that ALL ASPHALT CRACKS eventually. So what can you do? The number one proactive thing you can do is keep your cracks filled and sealed up water tight as often and as frequent as possible. No crackfill in the northeast is permanent not even our own, and we use some of the best product available in the nation. Most pavement in our area would benefit from being crackfilled every year for the life of the pavement. It’s fairly simple, the longer you keep the water out the better off you will be not only for the life of the pavement but for the safety of those walking across it. For more information about our crackfilling process you can check out our website or by all means give us a call or an email.
