Homeowners and businesses in your town or city rely on the quality of your thoroughfares to earn a living, enjoy the amenities that your municipality offers, and manage their shopping, commutes, and other personal business. Safe, smooth, well-maintained streets help your local economy thrive by protecting the people, vehicles, and goods that move through and around your town. When it is time to solicit bids for the construction or replacement of your city’s pavement, there are four questions you should ask all asphalt contractors you are considering for the job.
Questions to Ask Municipal Paving Contractors | Central Texas
1. What Asphalt Mix Do You Recommend?
An experienced contractor understands the entire manufacturing process for asphalt. He is familiar with the different recipes, including the percentage of reclaimed materials in each, the durability of each, and the impact that the different choices can have on the pavement’s traction, ride quality and appearance.
2. How Will You Handle Drainage?
Asphalt road construction is a complex process that requires contractors to pay close attention to any potential drainage issues. Water that pools on the surface of the pavement can be a safety hazard, but the water can also find its way to the pavement’s foundation and weaken it. The compromised foundation will allow the pavement to sag and develop potholes or alligator cracking. Your contractor should know how to handle a wide variety of drainage issues effectively and economically.
3. How Will You Achieve Proper Compaction?
Asphalt roadways must have proper compaction to be durable and safe. Compaction should begin with the underlying soil, and the compaction should involve thin layers of soil to achieve an extremely dense, properly graded structure that will provide stability necessary for the pavement to resist cracking and buckling. Your paving contractor will also need to compact each layer of the asphalt while it is hot. This means that he will need to ensure that he has the proper equipment and a sufficient number of trained workers at the site when the first delivery of asphalt arrives from the plant.
4. Do You Offer Preventive Maintenance?
If you oversee municipality asphalt paving projects, you are aware of the need to spend your budget wisely. Poorly maintained pavement will have a shorter life, and the repair costs can be significant during that brief span. Depending on your specific needs, your preventive maintenance program will likely include several of the following services.
• Inspections: At least once every year, your contractor should inspect your pavement for damage. This lets you make any small repairs needed before the issues escalate.
• Crack Filling: Over time, every asphalt pavement will develop cracks. If you ignore them, water can leak through them and damage the foundation. Furthermore, the cracks will only grow wider and deeper, permitting even more water to reach the foundation.
• Pothole Repair: Potholes pose an even higher risk to your pavement’s foundation than cracks, but they also pose a significant threat to drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.
• Sealcoating: Sealcoating can help protect asphalt pavement from the damages that automotive fluids, UV rays, and water can inflict. Sealcoating is especially useful for municipal parking lots, sidewalks, jogging trails and bike paths.
Alpha Paving frequently helps municipalities and counties throughout Central Texas with their paving needs. Our services include street maintenance, asphalt overlays, and paving, milling, road construction, sealcoating, thermoplastic pavement markings, parking lot striping, asphalt repairs, concrete installation, parking lot signs and concrete repairs. We have extensive experience in paving Austin and Central Texas parking lots, highways, and residential streets. In addition to local governments, our customers include airports, subdivisions, apartment complexes, health care facilities, homeowner associations, shopping centers, religious institutions, schools and universities, restaurants, office parks, entertainment venues, and hotels. We are a respected, reliable company with excellent references and an impeccable reputation. To request a free quote, you can either call our Round Rock office at 512-677-9001 or fill out our convenient online form.
