| DISTRESS | POSSIBLE CAUSE | MAINTENANCE SUGGESTIONS |
|---|---|---|
| Pot Hole | Weak pavement, surface, base, subgrade; Thin surface; Excess or deficient fines; Poor drainage. | Cut wet material out, clean and fill with asphalt mix. Allow an extra 25% of volume for compaction. Use a straight edge to restore patch to existing roadway section. |
| Base Failure | Consolidation of subgrade; Overload in area; Lack of lateral support; Poor drainage. | Remove all surface and base to a fine material and replace with an asphalt mix to a minimum depth according to required structural design. |
| Raveling | Lack of compaction; Constructed in cold or wet weather; Dirty aggregate; Dry mix; Over heating mix. | Skin patch, spot seal, fog seal or slurry seal. If required for entire project a thin overlay may be required. |
| Bleeding | Excess asphalt; Low air voids; Excess prime or tack. | Blot with screenings, apply chip surface treatment, or thin overlay. If project is pushing or other signs of plastic movement roto-mill/overlay. |
| Corrugations | Plastic mixture; Low air voids; Excessive asphalt or fines; Unstable base material. | Roto-mill plastic mixture off and replace with proper mixture. If base material is responsible, remove pavement, scarify and re-compact. |
| Depressions | Consolidation of subgrade; Poor construction; Poor drainage. | Clean area, tack and place a hot-mix skin patch. The area should be string lined for limits of patch. |
| Alligator Cracks | Weak surface, base or subgrade; Thin surface or base; Poor drainage. | Remove all distressed area to a depth of firm material and replace with the proper asphalt mix, allowing 25% times depth of patch for compaction. |
| Dry Surface/Cracking | Old and dried out mix; Mix was placed too dry. | Fog seal, slurry seal or overlay. |
| Edge Cracks | Lack of lateral support; Settlement of underlying material; Shrinkage of drying out soil. | Improve drainage. Remove trees, shrubs etc., close to edge. Fill cracks with asphalt emulsion slurry or emulsified asphalt. |
| Edge Joint Cracks | Wetting and drying beneath shoulder surface; Poor shoulder drainage due to a shoulder higher than main pavement; Depression in pavement edge; Shoulder settlement, mix shrinkage and trucks straddling the joint. | Improve drainage by removing the source that traps the water. Fill with asphalt emulsion slurry or light grade of asphalt mixed with fine sand. Provide side drainage ditches. |
| Slippage Cracks | Lack of a good bond between surface layer and the course beneath; Lack of bond due to dust, oil, dirt, rubber, water and other non-adhesive material; Tack coat has not been used; Mixture has a high sand content. | Remove surface layer from around crack until good bond between layers is found. Patch with plant-mixed asphalt material. Tuck with an asphalt emulsion. |
| Rutting | Results from consolidation or lateral movement under traffic; Displacement in the asphalt surface layer; New asphalt pavements with too little compaction during construction; Plastic fines in mix that does not have enough stability to support traffic. (high -200 material causing low air voids) | Level pavements by filling with hot plant-mired asphalt materials. Follow with thin asphalt plant-mix overlay, or roto-mill and overlay. Remove plastic mix by milling and replace with stable win. |
| Loss of Aggregate on Surface Treatments | Not spread immediately (1 minute); Asphalt may have cooled to much; Aggregate too dusty or too wet when spread; Not rolled immediately after placing it may not become seated; Steel-wheeled roller alone was used for compaction; Weather too cool when treatment applied; Fast traffic too soon after application. | Spread over affected areas hot coarse sand. After spreading it should be rolled immediately with a pneumatic-tired roller. |
| Longitudinal Streaking | Spray bar not set at correct height; Nozzle on spray bar not set at the correct angle; Wrong asphalt pump seed; Asphalt too cold; Pump pressure too low. | Re-seal surface using proper procedure and adjustment of equipment. |
| Moisture Damage (stripping) Identified by pavement shoving, bleeding or rutting | Moisture in pavement by high voids/low density, usually trapped in lower or intermediate layer; Excessive minus 200 material high fines/asphalt ratio. | Remove and replace with good mix. |
| Transverse uniform crack spaces | Low temperature thermal cracking, asphalt grade is too hard for climatic conditions. | Should use softer grade asphalt. Pour with ASTM 3405 joint material. |
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