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Road Maintenance Plan

Surface treatments of roads to extend their life cycle

What are the different options for road treatment maintenance?
What causes road deterioration?
How is road life forecasted?
How are the roads evaluated - PASER rating system?
Why are surface treatments necessary on roads?
Chipseal treatment is NOT part of the new road maintenance program

What are the different options for road treatment maintenance?

1. Microsurface
• Mix of emulsion, sand and water
• This surface treatment is for roads with a PASER rating of 6 or 7
• Applied with special mixing equipment, spreader box and squeegee
• Open to traffic and fully cured in one hour
• No, chips, rocks or loose material
• Can extend the pavement life cycle 6-8 years
• Cost $2.42 per square yard (2006 cost)
Video of Microsurface Process


2. Micropave
• Thin asphalt layer about 3/4 inch thick
• This surface treatment is for roads with a PASER rating of 6 or 7
• Curbs and manholes are milled for a smooth transition

Video On Milling Process


• No chips, rocks or loose material
• Smooth new asphalt surface
• Can extend the pavement life cycle 15 years
• Cost $11.32 per square yard (2006 cost)
Video on Micropave Process

3. Mill and Pavement overlay
• Light mill to create a rough surface
• Milled material is reused for Village projects
• Asphalt layer installed 1.5 inches thick
• This process is used on roads with a PASER rating of 4 or 5
• Cost $11.32 per square yard (2006 cost)

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What causes road deteriorations?

Deterioration has two general causes:

1. Environmental
• Due to moisture, weathering and aging
2. Structural
• Caused by repeated traffic loading
• Poor foundation

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How is road life forecasted?

• A road surface must protect like a roof
• It needs to be impermeable, sloped for drainage, have a system of drains
• Like your roof, a road surface must be:
    -sealed as leaks develop
    -patched as holes develop
    -resealed periodically
    -rebuilt as useful life is reached

Asphalt has a life span of 20 years if no maintenance is performed to extend the life of the pavement. The Village has applied several different road surface treatments on roads which will extend their life cycle to 40 years. View a pavements life cycle

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How are the roads evaluated - PASER rating system?

The Village uses the Pavement Asphalt System Evaluation Rating (PASER) system to evaluate the road conditions. This road evaluation is required to be reported to the State of Wisconsin every two years. Village staff had been trained in the PASER evaluation system. The PAER system uses a 10 point system (Where 10 is a new road and 1 is a road that has reached the end of its useful life).

All pavements are evaluated for:

• Types of distress - indicates what the problem is
• Level of Severity - indicates how bad the problem is
• Amount of distress - indicates how much repair must be done

There are three major categories of asphalt distress that are evaluated.

• Surface defects - Raveling
• Surface deformation - Rutting, shoving and settling
• Cracking - Transverse, longitudinal reflective, block and alligator

Village staff uses the condition evaluations to set priorities for projects and select alternative treatments. Summary of the PASER distribution.

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Why are surface treatments necessary on roads?

At the end of 20 years with no maintenance, the road needs to be ground up and new asphalt installed. This is an expensive management practice. View a pavement cycle with no surface treatment graph. With road treatments applied, the life cycle can double. This can save millions of dollars over the life of all the Village roads.

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Chipseal surface treatment is NOT a part of the new road maintenance program.

Chipseal is a low cost surface treatment that uses the process of applying oil to the road and spreading a layer of small stones such as pea gravel or boiler slag over the oil. The chips are rolled into the surface with rubber tired rollers. This creates 3/8 inch thick stone wear surface over the aging asphalt. Daily traffic compacts the small stones into the surface over next two weeks. Any excess material can be swept up and reused. the Village found that this process did not work well in areas that have curb and gutters because the small stones were tracked into driveways and homes. Many communities use chipseal as part of their road maintenance program because of the low cost. Pleasant Prairie has studied and found other surface treatments that so not have the loose material and provide a superior wear surface such as Microsurface and Micopave. Both of the surface treatments have been used in the Village and are performing excellent.

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