Pavement is tough. It can withstand thousands of pounds of vehicles rolling over it, often for years at a time. But as with most things that have immense strength, it does have it’s weakness; temperature. Wide fluctuations in temperature, like most of The Maritimes, can see over the course of a year, can have an effect on pavement.
Cold: With the colder months upon us, let’s start with what we should face next. In the wintertime, especially here on the East Coast, we can see temperatures fluctuate above and below the freezing mark. With, two things happen: Cracks appear, and precipitation can get into those cracks and under your pavement. When the temperature falls under freezing, the precipitation freezes with it, and expands in the cracks, causing even more damage.
Warm: In the summertime is when the real damage can happen. In the winter, the damage happens when there are cracks. The summer is when those cracks can happen. The warm weather causes the pavement to expand; if it expands too much, then it starts to crack. The crack lets water inside, which erodes the dirt and gravel beneath, and can cause the pavement to sag, and cause potholes.
While we can’t stop weather from happening, we can do our best to stop cracks and damage in pavement. Do you have cracks in your driveway or parking lot? Reach out to VON Paving. We can help!
