Roads are built by a high-tech process that involves aggregate, heavy machinery, and the hard work of road crews. Carefully constructed roads last for decades, but the pressure they're under every day from the traffic that travels on them does take its toll. Pavement needs to be maintained regularly, whether it's crumbling at the edges, developing pot holes, or cracking across the middle. There are several crack sealing materials necessary for sealing cracks in pavement; each designed to keep the road smooth and safe for the long duration of its life. If you run a road crew, or you supervise a municipal budget, you need to know how to seal cracks in pavement, and what crack sealing materials your crews will need. Here are 5 crack sealing materials you can not do without.
Router. Before you can seal a crack in the pavement, you have to clean it out. This is really the more complex piece of the sealing process. First, you have to widen the crack slightly and make sure there is enough room to pour the sealant into it. This can be done with a router, which is a piece of equipment strong enough to cut the pavement on either side of the crack. Once the crack is wide enough for sealant to be poured in, it can then be prepared for the sealing process.
Blow pipe. If the dirt or debris in the crack is dry, the easiest piece of equipment to use is a simple blow pipe to clean out the crack. This is because you want the crack sealing materials to cling to either side of the crack, keeping the road intact even as it moves with the road's changes. A blow pipe will take care of these requirements.
Hot air lance. A hot air lance can be used to clean out a crack if the debris inside is more complext than just bits of dirt and pavement dust. Sometimes it's wet or sticky, and can not be blown away by a blow pipe. A hot air lance blows compressed air at temperatures around 2000 degrees, drying and clearing anything that might remain in the crack, allowing it to be filled immediately with the sealant.
Cold sealant. There are two ways to seal a crack-with cold sealant or hot sealant. Different crews perfer different methods, though it does appear that hot sealant is the preferred crack sealing material to use on newer roads. Cold sealant includes liquid asphalt and polymer-modified liquid asphalt.
Hot sealant. Hot sealant can include several different types of sealant, including all of the ones that use rubber, one of the most effective sealants. Other crack sealing materials that fall into the category of hot sealant include low-modulus rubberized asphalt, rubberized asphalt, asphalt cement, asphalt rubber, mineral-filled asphalt cement, and fiberized asphalt.
Road crews work hard with specialized crack sealing materials to make sure that our roads stay safe and can bear the traffic and weight we ask them to. These crack sealing materials are essential for the crews to continue to do the good work they do.