Why the new pavement sometimes doesn’t last long
Q The surface on east Highway 237 between North First Street and Interstate 880 was repaved less than a year ago. Yet, it is already breaking apart at a furious pace.
No matter what the excuses are (rain, wear and tear, etc.), what could possibly be the cause for such a fast deterioration of a new surface? H.D. Highway 237 commuter
A Today it’s gripes about recent roadwork that hasn’t worked. Groundwater is close to the surface of 237 and causes problems every few years. The recent repaving will likely be repeated in the near future.
Q Much of North First Street in the area of Montague Expressway was recently repaved and restriped. But most of the new pavement has peeled off the road, exposing the same surface that was there before taxpayers paid to have it paved.
The combination of the original and repaved surface makes the road worse than before.
Please tell me this will be repaved at the contractor’s expense. Doug Owens San Jose
A Yes. The area between River Oaks Parkway and Montague is especially bad. The contractor will apply a new surface as the weather gets better.
Q The new paving on west Interstate 580 is great, but eastbound is a sad, different story. It’s already crumbling in two lanes. … In Livermore, the eastbound Stanley Boulevard transition to Isabel Avenue has a 5-foot-by-3foot pothole that is too big to get around without changing lanes.
They came out and patched it but it came back with vengeance during the rains. B. Castillo, Dave Clausen and others
A I need help here. Russ-the-Asphalt-Man, please explain to us what’s going on.
“Once asphalt is placed and the road is reopened to traffic, this should not happen. However, there may be extenuating circumstances, such as the paving is temporary — like for an emergency repair, where a permanent fix will be done later.
“In the case of new pavement the cause could be in the design, production or placement. Typically an agency will specify asphalt pavement be produced and placed to a specific design and construction standard, and there are many tests and inspections along the way to ensure the agency is getting what they pay for. In the case of pavement not performing up to standards, the agency and contractor will meet to review all relevant information, try to agree on a conclusion, and then a remedy that could be a deduction in the agreed-upon price. In cases where the contractor and the agency do not agree, the dispute could end up being decided by a third party or a court.
“As money for roads dwindles or is diverted elsewhere, regular pavement maintenance schedules are extended or postponed, and the road surface suffers. Water intrusion exposes pavement problems that lurk just beneath the surface.
“The silver lining of several years of drought was that deferred maintenance was not as noticeable as it could have been.
“With our recent heavy rains, however, all that water is finding its way into the pavement substructure, weakening it, and compromising the surface above, resulting in a pothole or other failures.”