Public Works

Crack Sealing

Project Summary

Each year, the City crack seals half of its roadways, extending pavement life.  In even years, all roads east of Hanley Road are crack sealed.  In odd years, all roads west of Hanley Road are crack sealed.

Description: Crack and joint sealing consists of cleaning the non-working crack in the bituminous pavement surface and placing the specified materials into and above the crack to substantially reduce infiltration of water and to reinforce the adjacent pavement. The fill method consists cleaning the crack surface and placing the specified materials into the cavity to prevent the intrusion of water and incompressibles into the crack.

Purpose: The purpose of sealing and filling cracks in the flexible pavement surface is to prevent water and incompressibles from entering the pavement structure.

Existing pavement condition: The existing bituminous surface should be a relatively newly placed surface on a good base. On a flexible (asphalt or rock) base, the bituminous surface should be two to four years old and on a composite pavement (concrete base with asphalt surface), one to two years old. The visible surface distress may include: fairly straight open longitudinal and transverse cracks with slight secondary cracking and slight raveling at the crack face, and no patching or very few patches in excellent condition.

Existing pavement surface preparation: None, although the surface must be dry, so springtime application is generally preferable. The crack sealing material takes longer to set up in hot temperatures.

Performance: The effectiveness of the seal will greatly depend upon the width of crack being sealed and the movement of the pavement structure at the crack.

Life Extension: This treatment is not a one shot operation. In order to maintain the sealed pavement surface, a routine maintenance crack sealing and filling operation should follow up this treatment, as additional cracks develop. For the purposes of this program, we seal and fill cracks on a biennial basis.

Project Schedule

The successful bidder for the FY 2012 project was Sweetens Concrete Services.  Work is expected to take place in late March or early April, weather permitting. 

Last updated: 3/14/12