This week our district took delivery of an asphalt road crack sealing system.  It is estimated that with periodic proper sealing of weathered and cracked roads can extend the useful life of the asphalt surface from five to eight years with proper attention to maintenance.   Sealing cracks and joints in pavements extends the service life of the surface treatment and the pavement.   The benefits are realized in three to five years when it becomes obvious that the pavement has not deteriorated.   It is an accepted fact that roads that have been crack sealed have better ride-ability five years later than other surface treatments, such as chip seals, micro-paving, thin overlays and slurry seals.   In five years these other treatments have come to the end of their life cycle. Roads and bridges that are crack sealed last longer than those that are not.  Sealing prior to surface treatments enhances the treatment and further extends the pavement life. At a time when highway crew manpower is shrinking, along with the funds to support road maintenance, crack sealing stands out as an economical maintenance technique.

We believe that crack sealing provides the most cost-effective use of dollars over time compared to other pavement maintenance techniques so we invested in a crack sealing system.  Training in the operation of a new piece of equipment is crustal to the care a maintenance of our new investment.  We purchased this Crafco Super Shot 125 gallon melter (diesel) with heated hose using the Oklahoma State Purchasing contract.  The folks from PMSI who delivered the equipment also provided expert training to our road maintenance crews as part of their delivery service.

After learning to put the system into operation in the shop it was time to get out to one of our county roads for some hands on training.  We learned the sealant should be placed flush with the pavement or slightly overfilled on the surface. In an over-band configuration, the sealant is placed onto and over an unrouted crack. The sealant can be shaped into a band over the crack using a rubber blade squeegee or a sealing shoe that flattens the sealant over the crack.

Crack sealing has one objective: to prevent water from further damaging roads. Sealing buys time and saves money by delaying the expense of major reconstructive pavement work.  All trained up and ready to go, our crews will now be out using this system to seal and protect our roadways, please watch for them as they inspect and seal the paved roads in our district.