Black is a heat-absorbent color, so you need not worry about the ice on your asphalt pavement; the sun will tend to it. But if your pavement is like the dark side of the moon, you better anticipate a surface far more cratered by the time the snow damage is at its peak.
The Pavement Group takes due pride in installing a flawless & porous blacktop for snow melts, but if your current pavement hasn’t been upgraded since the 2010s, you already know what the snow is doing to your asphalt!
Paving In Snow; Is It Sensible?
Asphalt is usually laid out & compacted in layers during the optimal paving season (60F and up) because that allows the layers to adhere & cure as their design intended. Paving in frigid temperatures means your asphalt is faulty from the start, and the last thing you need is snow to exacerbate the damage.
If the asphalt does need emergency repairs, then a cold patch is the typical solution. However, it is not a permanent fix, and by summer, it needs to be patched with HMA. Of course, the seal coat comes much later, but it is crucial!
1. Snow Plow
Ah, Ha! you thought we’d start with water intrusion? But have you seen a plow up close? The municipal authorities in Minneapolis use all sorts of plowing attachments to get the snow off your residential pavement. Still, these snowplowing implements are bound to scrape off the frozen asphalt surface in a manner akin to botched milling. Straight edges, front loaders, and plowing attachments all tend to mark pavement, leaving the gouges to become potholes.
2. Frigid Temperatures
Asphalt is a flexible pavement, but that does not equate to indestructible. The daytime snowmelt permeates the plowed gouges, existing raveling, alligator cracks & weathered seal coat on the asphalt, leading to further damage as the melt freezes come nightfall. If you want to see a relentless force of nature such as expanding ice, you haven’t yet forgotten champagne in the freezer!
3. Chemical Deicers
Commercial & residential property managers rely on a lot of salt to melt the ice off the pavement & prevent getting sued from lack of ADA compliant surface quality. Apart from the excess brine runoff potentially polluting groundwater sources, the deicing salts turn into corrosive compounds, drying out the asphalt & breaking it down.
4. And, The Snow Itself!
Water is asphalt’s greatest enemy. If a parking lot, driveway, or highway has certain pavement distresses marring the surface, the melting ice water will pool into these depressions and erode the asphalt.
Upgrade Your Pavement!
As it continues to snow relentlessly in Minneapolis, be assured your asphalt is getting wrecked the more plowing & salting you put to it.
We have a solution; why not check out our services and get a free quote on a porous asphalt upgrade? With the sun out, all that ice melt will dutifully pass through the pavement, recharging groundwater levels and giving you the pride of being green!
The Pavement Group likes adding in the perks of asphalt pavement remediation & upgrades to stimulate the value for our clients on the green end. That’s what makes us so reliable, affordable, & referable across Minneapolis, MN.
Get your free quotes today, and we’ll work on a spring-melt maintenance plan tomorrow!