Guest Column: How municipalities

How municipalities are changing the pothole patching game

Michael Blake | Guest columnist Director of Marketing, KM International

Every spring municipal agencies across the country are faced with a long-standing problem: potholes. Year after year, potholes and road conditions make front page news and are a constant nuisance for drivers who must deal with the potholes and municipalities that must fill them. The typical process of filling potholes is known as the “throw and go” method, but as the country’s infrastructure continues to deteriorate and municipal budgets remain stagnant, municipalities are looking for new and innovative solutions to the pothole dilemma.

When it comes to pothole patching, municipalities are facing an uphill battle with a few key factors causing major roadblocks.

Issue 1: The process

Municipalities adopted the throw and go pothole filling method many years ago. In a nutshell this process includes municipal workers driving around filling problematic potholes out of the back of a dump truck or pickup truck. The material, often cold patch material, is thrown in the pothole and lightly compacted with the back of a shovel or not compacted at all. With the current state of the country’s infrastructure, the throw and go method is now nothing more than a temporary repair at best. Another major flaw with the throw and go method is the material selection, which brings us to the next issue: asphalt material selection.

Issue 2: Asphalt material

In most cases, especially during the colder months when the asphalt plants are closed, municipalities rely on expensive cold patch material for pothole patching. Cold patch is widely considered a temporary fix until municipalilies can revisit the pothole and make a permanent repair with hotmix asphalt during the spring or summer. This temporary fix is not only cost prohibitive, but it takes double the time and labor to repair the same pothole multiple times.

Even when hotmix asphalt is available, municipalities are mostly patching out of dump trucks or pickup trucks and the hotmix asphalt is cold before they can even make it to the job site. Asphalt plants drop hotmix at 350 F, and that temperature immediately starts decreasing as soon as you leave the plant, so depending on drive time, the asphalt could 250 F or below before even you even start patching. This drop in temperature results in a drastic decrease in the structural integrity and longevity of the asphalt material and in turn a drastic decrease in the reliability of the repairs being made.

The solution

While most municipalities consider the throw and go method the standard when it comes to pothole patching, there is a much more effective, efficient and cost conducive method that will offer municipalities longterm solutions to their pothole problems. In recent years, municipal entities have invested in the right equipment and more importantly started a fundamental shift to deviate away from the status quo when it comes to pothole

LEFT: Pothole repair remains a constant thorn for municipalities across the U.S., but with careful planning and the right equipment, repairs will last longer, keeping citizens happier. (Photo provided)

RIGHT: An asphalt hotbox will keep hotmix between 325 F to 350 F for a full day of pothole patching. Because the heat is maintain, patches have greater longevity. (Photo provided)

patching, breaking it into three convenient, easy and, most importantly, effective steps.

Step 1: Preparation

A successful pothole repair starts with the preparation. Crew members should remove any loose dirt or debris from the pothole, and if there is moisture in the hole, it should be dried out via a hand torch or similar tool. Taking one step further, a layer of tack should be applied to the pothole prior to filling with the material.

Step 2: Patching

This step is where quality material will either make or break your repair. Hotmix asphalt is always recommended and more importantly hotmix applied at the correct temperature. Most municipalities transport hotmix asphalt in a dump truck, but as soon as you leave the asphalt plant, it cools from 350 F to 250 F in less than an hour and even faster after that.

Most of the times, municipalities are buying 4 or 5 tons just to keep 1 or 2 tons warm for patching throughout the day. Machines such as asphalt hotbox reclaimers maintain asphalt temps for up to three days, ensuring the asphalt remains at 325 F to 350 F for a full day of pothole patching.

Machines such as asphalt hotboxes are usually reclaimer type units as well, meaning a user can bulk store cold virgin asphalt and reheat/reclaim that material overnight, so you are never without asphalt hotmix. This will also reduce or eliminate your dependency on subpar and expensive cold patch material. The importance of a quality hotmix that is maintained at the right temperature is it allows for a much denser compaction rate, which brings us to our third and final step.

Step 3: Compaction

Compaction is the final step of the pothole filling process. Compaction is an absolute Hotboxes can be used to bulk store cold virgin asphalt, which can then be reheated or reclaimed overnight. (Photo provided)

must when pothole patching; the proper compaction rate combined with a quality asphalt material will ensure great compaction rates and aid the asphalt, patch greatly reducing the likelihood you will have make repeat repairs to that pothole. And when we talk about compaction, this is not tamping the asphalt with the back of your shovel or driving over it with a truck tire; this is using a plate compactor or roller to achieve the highest compaction rate possible.

It is vital to understand each of these steps are complementary of each other, and in order to truly achieve long-term pothole repairs, they must be done in this order.

As simple as this process may seem, it is overlooked or ignored by many municipalities across the U.S., but with the right knowledge, equipment and understanding, this process can offer you and, more importantly, your citizens long-term solutions to potholes and other asphalt defects.

Michael Blake is the director of marketing for KM International, located in North Branch, Mich. He has held this position since 2016.