As a property owner, and/or manager, there are an assortment of things you can do to maintain your pavement investment, but also protect it. When the asphalt surface is privately owned, it is a lot easier to control how your asphalt is treated. However, when it comes to roadways or public communities like condominium complexes, it is harder to manage it’s use. Although, there are ways to aid in ensuring and enforcing safety for individuals, as well as your pavement.
Maintenance Practices:
- Regular maintenance – This is not only necessary in preserving your pavement investment, but asphalt repairs, like crack filling and pot hole repair, are extremely cost effective and are essential in preservation.
- Beware of deicers – While deicers are often necessary to prevent potentially damaging falls and accidents, they do eat away at your asphalt. Not only that, their harshness can damage vehicles. Consider milder salt alternatives or other products like sand, gravel, or organic alternatives. Learn more about the potential damages rock salt can cause HERE.
- Fix damages – Early spring will be the most popular a necessary time to evaluate and repair your asphalt following winter damage. However, it is important to monitor your asphalt surface year-round, and to consider temporarily fixing new damages as they occur to prevent them from getting worse.
Other Additions To Encourage Safety:
- Post and enforce speed limits and hazard warning signs.
- Eliminate dangerous trees and vegetation.
- Promptly tend to repair and damages.
- Keep your pavement surface clean and quickly remove road kills.
- Display signs warning to be aware of children at play, dangerous curves, narrow roadways, steep grades, and the alike. This will help encourage slow and mindful driving.
- Install obstacles/safety barriers that prevent drivers from going into roadside ditches.
- Keep a pile of sand and your snow melt alternatives handy when/where snow and ice is expected.
- Create barriers where vehicles don’t belong.
- Place mailboxes and garbage collection areas in locations that are both visible and easy to drive up to. It is important to extend subgrade, drainage relief, and surfacing far enough into these areas. This is to counter truck loading and handling vehicles. And therefore ensures that they do not get too close to the road’s edge.
- Consider speed bump additions to help ensure cars are slowing down, especially in high pedestrian traffic areas.
How Can EastCoat Help Protect Your Pavement Investment
Your parking lot and roadway paving is a big undertaking, and a big investment. Because of this we know that it is important to preserve and protect it. This is to ensure its longevity, but to also ensure the safety of those traveling on the surface. Regular asphalt maintenance and repair is so important and a necessity in preserving the life of your asphalt. When planning your parking lot paving job, consider some of the additional items listed about safe driving in your lot. This will not only help to prevent unnecessary pavement abuse, but also safety. Contact EastCoat Pavement Services for your free paving, repair, and maintenance program consultation.