Sustainable Road Treatments
Choice Of Treatments Ensures Roads Are Built Sustainably
Ah, there's nothing like a smooth road ride! Road users may not know what goes into high-performance pavement, but they certainly feel the difference a newly rehabilitated road makes when they are driving on it.
Keeping roads as-good-as-new for as long as possible is one of the top objectives in maintaining the City's road network. Adhering to this sustainable goal guides the City's selection of materials and placement techniques.
Where possible, a method called micro-surfacing is used to extend the life of the asphalt. (A sound pavement structure needs to be in place for micro-surfacing to be viable.)
Micro-surfacing is a cost-effective pavement preservation strategy employed by City contractors which involves applying:
- A seal coat of asphalt emulsion (basically, asphalt and water) and construction aggregate (sand, gravel, crushed stone and particulate). This layer Flls minor wheel ruts.
- A slurry seal — a mix of asphalt emulsion, aggregate and water. This layer covers the entire surface.
- A Fnal micro-surfacing mixture of asphalt emulsion, Fne-crushed stone aggregate and water to further protect the road's surface.
Each of these treatments is applied in a thin layer designed to seal the pavement surface and prevent water from getting down into the road base to reduce deterioration, extend the life of the road and create a surface that offers a a coarser texture for better skid resistance and a safe wearing surface good for up to eight years. This product mixture has been used on Highway 2 east of CFB Kingston easterly to the City limits in 2010.
Micro-surfacing costs between three and Fve times less than traditional applications. In addition to the cost savings, these technologies are more environmentally friendly, use fewer materials and can be constructed much more quickly — reducing the impact of construction on traffic.
