If you’re driving down the road and hit a pothole, you’ll usually curse and pray that no damage has come to your car. Year after year, you might get frustrated as your city ignores potholes and cracks that could potentially be dangerous to drive on and cause damage to your vehicle. You may wonder why the city never does anything about them and how long can this keep going on before citizens take up arms and protect the city’s lacking empathy.

Here’s What to Know About Paving in Cold Weather

However, in many places across the US, asphalt repairs and paving projects can’t take place during the winter. Why? Because it’s cold. Some forms of asphalt, many that have to do with the creation and upkeep of roads, can’t be mixed, set or sealed during winter because of the cold and snow. Certain types of asphalt, most notably the hot mix asphalt, can’t be set in winter because of the temperatures needed to set it properly.

If you live in an area that sees cold or snow, this is why winter can be one of the most frustrating times to drive locally. You’ll see parking lots, streets and driveways in dire need of replacement and repair. They get worse during the winter, especially as people have to drive over them to get to and fro. It may be frustrating, but there’s really nothing the city can do until the spring. That’s why when the weather warms up and the cold is behind a place, you’ll see asphalt companies just about everywhere.

If you live in an area that’s prone to cold, snow and bad weather during winter, do what you can to avoid areas you know are damaged. This will save you time and frustration having to put your vehicle in the shop. Potholes can be especially damaging to cars, even causing accidents. If you can avoid them, do so at all costs. If you can’t, do your best to avoid them by turning to the side or switching lanes. Until the spring is here, the best you can do is avoid potholes and cracks in the asphalt roads you drive on every day.

Asphalt paving is an essential part of our everyday lives, despite not really noticing it until we hit a pothole or crack in the road. We drive on asphalt roads and highways every day. Without them, we’d be driving on dirt roads and in other conditions that would destroy our tires, cars and make our lives that much harder to get to and from every day. How does asphalt paving work? Let’s look at what asphalt paving is and why it’s necessary.

Asphalt Paving to Create Roads

When asphalt paving occurs, asphalt is laid down in such a way to create a single road. The width, length and height of the road depends on the conditions of what an asphalt layer is working with. There’s two types of asphalt paving: New or repair. New asphalt paving is when a new road is laid down. Repair paving is when asphalt roads need to be touched up, filled in or recreated in order to create a smooth driving or walking experience.

Asphalt Paving to Repair Roads

Asphalt deterioration takes places on every road as you know from cracks, potholes and other road conditions. These conditions can cause trouble for drivers, even damaging their tires and framework if the conditions are bad enough. That’s where asphalt paving repair comes in handy.

There are three categories of asphalt deterioration: Construction, environmental and load. The latter refers to traffic loads which occur when drivers take the same roads every day. Environmental concerns come in the form of everything from weather to temperature to run off. Construction concerns happen when asphalt is laid too quickly, doesn’t set properly or corners are cut.

Any one of these can cause an asphalt road to deteriorate but when all three work together, they create an even quicker issue that needs to be repaired. Design, construction, maintenance and long-term planning can lead to an asphalt road lasting much longer than anticipated, despite traffic load.

Regular asphalt maintenance, repair and upkeep is essential to prolonging the life of asphalt paving. When the above is ignored, potholes and cracks add up, destroying the asphalt and causing issues for drivers and those that have to repair them.