Last week, we gave you a quick overview of the History of Asphalt. This week, we are going to take a look at the many different types of asphalt pavement currently available. You may be surprised at how versatile this paving material really is. The different varieties of asphalt pavement include:

Perpetual Pavement: Take the smoothness and safety advantages of traditional asphalt and throw in an advanced, multi-layer paving design process. When you couple that with routine asphalt maintenance, you get a pavement material designed to last! The advantages of perpetual pavement include:

• Perpetual Pavements can be maintained easily

• Surface restoration is extremely cost effective

• Reconstruction can be performed without removing the old road structure

Porous Asphalt: This type of asphalt is the perfect way to manage storm water and eliminate standing water, which can wreak havoc on your asphalt surface. Used primarily for parking lots, porous asphalt allows water to drain through the pavement into a stone recharge bed and then into the soil below. The advantages of porous asphalt include:

•Porous asphalt can provide cost-effective, attractive pavements

• Experiences few, if any, cracking or potholes

• A life span of more than twenty years

• Provide storm-water management systems that promote infiltration, improve water quality, and many times eliminate the need for a detention basin

Quiet Pavement: Today’s busy world is noisy enough. Quiet pavement is designed to eliminate at least some of that noise. The advantages of quiet pavement include:

• Noise experienced both inside and outside homes and businesses can be significantly reduced

• Research shows that resurfacing a noisy road with stone-matrix asphalt (SMA) or open-graded friction course (OGFC) mix will reduce highway noise by 3 to 5 dB(A) or more

Warm-Mix Asphalt: This is the generic name of the technology that allows manufacturers of hot-mix asphalt to lower the temperatures at which the material is mixed and placed on the road. The advantages of warm-mix asphalt include:

• Reductions of 50 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit have been documented

• Improved safety for asphalt workers

• Decreased production of greenhouse gases

• Decreased fuel consumption

• Better compaction of pavements

• Extended paving seasons

• Potential to be able to recycle at higher rates

Hopefully, now you know more about asphalt than you did before!

If you have any questions about Asphalt or if you have a construction project that you need completed right the first time, please contact Reliable Contracting by calling 410-987-0313 or visit our website.

Reliable Contracting maintains a reputation as a leader in the construction industry. Our clientele includes builders, developers, individuals and government agencies. With projects ranging in cost from $10,000 to over $10 million, Reliable can be seen working on Maryland’s roads, highways, airports, office parks, shopping centers, hospitals, churches, and residential neighborhoods earning our reputation by providing clients with consistent quality and dedication to their projects.

Reliable Contracting Company serves the following and surrounding Counties: Annapolis, Queen Anne’s, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Baltimore City, Calvert, Caroline, Charles, Howard, Prince George, St. Mary’s, Talbot, and Washington D.C.

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Types of Asphalt