Asphalt Maintenance Through Rejuvenation – Denver Colorado
Proper asphalt maintenance is essential if maximum pavement life is to be expected.
The concept of rejuvenation is to introduce into a healthy asphalt pavement a property that is not already present to enhance and prolong the life of the asphalt binder therefore extending the life of the asphalt pavement.
Rejuvenators are designed to penetrate deep into the top surface of asphalt pavement introducing into the asphalt the binder, the required maltenes, and polar compounds necessary to keep the fines and the small aggregate on the surface of the pavement bonded together so as to prevent raveling of the top of the asphalt pavement. Rejuvenation keeps the asphalt binder healthy and results in longer pavement life by keeping the fines in place and not allowing the course aggregate to become exposed.
With today’s high yield refining processes such as the hydro-treater and the catalytic cracker, the quality of available asphalt’s are not what they use to be. The problem is that these efficient refining processes are taking too many of the light ends or maltenes out of the asphalt, which are necessary for proper binder performance. It is getting increasingly more difficult to acquire good quality asphalt base stocks to produce quality asphalt pavements.
Asphalt is basically the black sheep of the petroleum industry. It is a low yield byproduct from the manufacture of high end products such as styrene, polymer’s, gasoline, fuels and lube stocks, which are high end, high profit products. Therefore it is natural to assume that a refiner would develop more efficient process’s to produce more of the high profit products per barrel of crude oil. One would figure this is “good business.” However, this “good business” practice has resulted in lowering the quality of today’s asphalt base stocks. This is why proper pavement maintenance through rejuvenation is essential in today’s asphalt paving industry.
Pavement Rejuvenation is not a new concept. It has been around for about forty years. There has been several products introduced into the industry over the years and several have gone the way of the Dodo.
Asphalt pavement is like the human body. It is easier to keep it in good shape, rather then to let it go to heck and then try to rebuild it.
The proper way to begin pavement maintenance through rejuvenation is to start with a healthy asphalt pavement and keep it that way. it is generally recommended to apply a rejuvenator sometime between 3 to 6 months after the new asphalt pavement has been laid. This introduces into the new asphalt mat the additional binders necessary to keep the fines in place thus protecting the base aggregate in the mat and helps keep the mat flexible. Then after about three to four years apply another application of the rejuvenator to reintroduce the compounds necessary to help maintain the life of the pavement. Continue to reapply a rejuvenator about every four years through the life of the pavement.
Utilizing this method, it has been proven that with proper pavement maintenance through rejuvenation in conjunction with a properly designed crack sealing program it is possible to extend the life of primary and secondary roads up to three to five years.
In parking lot and driveway applications asphalt life has been extended up to ten years or more in some cases.
Todd M-
If you have a parking lot or driveway in or around Denver in need of asphalt maintenance Contact Love’s Enterprises LLC today for a free estimate.
