Pothole Repairs for Road Maintenance
Potholes are dangerous to motorists and are major causes of accidents, tyre bursts and deflations. They form as a result of weakness of the surface of the road. As the weakness fractures develop, they continue to interlock and form a pattern referred to as crocodile cracking. The chunks of road surface between the crocodile cracks continue to loosen with the effects of traffic loads over the road by vehicles. Eventually, these loose chunks get picked out of the road surface, forming a pothole. These potholes continue to develop and can become very deep in the process. Pothole repairs are therefore essential to prevent injuries or loss of lives.
Why Pothole Repairs are Necessary
Repairing potholes is a small price to pay, considering that potholes provide a high probability of legal suits in accident circumstances. If a pedestrian trips and breaks a leg walking over potholes or if a motorist drives through it and suffers damage to the car or sustains serious bodily harm, this will be a serious court case. The same case applies to potholes on asphalt car parks.
Pothole Repair Steps
There are several ways through which road maintenance can be done. Pothole repairs are the most common. But how are potholes repaired? The steps involved in pothole repairs include the following:
- The area to be repaired is thoroughly cleaned by your contractor. Debris and other loose materials are removed. It is not a must that all the dirt and dust be removed, but any large loose materials are removed. Your contractor knows that water in the pothole is not a problem because it will be displaced by asphalt.
- Your contractor will make the pothole edges as square as possible. Perfect pothole repairs need the edges to be made square for a perfect finish.
- The repair material (asphalt patch) is then poured into the pothole. The hole should be overfilled by about two to three inches above the surrounding asphalt surface. Depending on the size of the hole, shovels or trowels can be used to fill the pothole.
- Your contractor will then use a compacting machine to make sure that the asphalt is as compact as possible. The longevity of your pothole repair will depend with the compaction of the filling material. The harder the compaction, the longer the repair will last.
- Reapply asphalt until the repair surface is uniform with the surrounding asphalt surface.
Your pothole repair contractor will be in a position to advise you on the curing time your repaired area should last before being opened to traffic once again.