You must have traveled on highways more times than you remember, but have you ever wondered how engineers rebuild or repair them once they get worn down? Engineers specializing in paving rehabilitation services and heavy highway construction repair damaged roads, making them safe to drive on.
Faulty or damaged roads are responsible for several accidents, and delaying their repairs worsens the situation. If you have a highway repair construction project in hand, you must hire a high-quality paving company with sufficient experience and an efficient team of contractors who will get the job done with the highest quality, safety, and efficiency.
But, what are some things you must know about heavy highway construction, and how can you be sure of hiring a trustworthy company? Let’s find out.
What is heavy highway construction?
Heavy construction refers to construction work on roads, ports, bridges, and similar structures. The process involves using heavy equipment like motor graders, cranes, asphalt mixers, forklifts, and excavators. Contractors require specialized skills to operate these machines while practicing the various safety protocols.
In most heavy highway constructions, contractors use these machines for paving rehabilitation methods like reclaiming and paving to repair cracks, distresses, and other failures that occur on the highways. Such projects might involve considerable time and effort and are different from smaller construction projects.
Some reasons behind highway damages
Highway damages occur for various reasons, one of which is poor design. A poor design could refer to an insatiable base course (the first layer of material in the pavement for distributing the vehicle’s load), which cracks or bleeds, gradually weakening the pavement.
Placing the base lower than required would also be a design-related failure and will result in inefficient distribution of the load, thus damaging the pavement entirely.
Road damages also occur because of a burst in sewer pipes, resulting in water leaking out and weakening the soil that supports the pavement. Soil issues, for example, the presence of a high water table, can also weaken the highway pavement’s integrity. Even though it might appear a minor problem, it can become pretty devastating unless attended to timely.
Famous highway paving repair methods
Contractors carry out heavy highway pavement construction in various ways, for example, millings, reclaims, and pavement overlays.
- Milling
Milling is a construction process whereby the contractors remove the existing asphalt’s top layer without moving the base below it, allowing them to place fresh asphalt without altering the road’s height or fixing the base below it.
- Reclamation
In the reclamation process, the engineers use a heavy-duty machine to reduce the existing asphalt’s thickness and the base below it. They follow that by adding a binding layer to the surface, resulting in an improved base layer.
- Pavement overlays
If the pavement has only minor damage, a pavement layer is the best option since it involves laying hot mix asphalt or HMA over the existing structure, thus eliminating the necessity of complete replacement.
Why is asphalt best for highway paving?
Professionals prefer using asphalt for heavy highway construction. Asphalt pavement rehabilitation has several benefits. For instance, it provides a highly smooth surface that significantly decreases damage to the pavement.
It is also friendly to the vehicles as it reduces wear and tears while reducing the noise generated by the friction between the tires and the pavement. Additionally, it allows contractors to complete a project at a faster rate. Moreover, asphalt is also environmentally friendly because it requires almost 20% less energy during its production process compared to other materials.
How to hire a contractor for your repair project?
It is better to hire an experienced highway pavement construction company for your project because they will provide you with the best results by using the correct methods.
You could consider asking them about the methods they use for construction repairs and what materials they prefer for the process. As mentioned above, a trustworthy company would usually use asphalt because of its numerous benefits. If the company has a website, you could browse it and check the earlier projects completed by them to get an idea about their work.
It is crucial to hire the right company for your heavy highway construction project and ensure the highway withstands the wear and tear, vehicles, weather changes, and other issues that weaken it with time. Solid highway construction will last for years with little to no maintenance.
