As our name implies, we specialize in micro-surfacing, a polymer-modified cold-application paving system developed in Europe in the 1970s. It is designed to set quickly and uses high-quality aggregates to provide a long-lasting wearing surface on good, strong pavements.
The full-width wearing surface is the most common application. It is often a double-course process adding about 3/8" thickness to the existing surface. It can also be applied in a single course on lower volume traffic areas. Either way, adjustments to manholes, inlets, etc. are not necessary. Different aggregate gradations can be used to affect surface texture and wearability.
Micro-surfacing can also be used to fill wheel-path ruts. A special rut-fill box is used to fill one rut at a time, up to about two inches in depth. This is a cost-effective alternative to expensive pavement milling and hotmix inlay. In most instances, pavement markings can be left undisturbed and years of service life added to what was an unsafe surface.
A Cape Seal is a two step process that combines two surface treatments. A chip seal is covered with a single pass micro-surfacing. The resultant surface exhibits the best characteristics of both applications and minimizes the less favorable characteristics of each.
In a chip seal, a sheet of liquid polymer asphalt emulsion is sprayed (usually more than 1/3 gal. per square yard) and immediately covered with a single sized chip aggregate (usually 1/4" to 1/3" size) and then rolled. Chip seals are effective at preventing smaller cracks from reflecting up through the surface and they tend to "heal-over" in the warmer months if minor cracking appears in the coldest months. Chip seals can be dusty and have loose stones.
That’s where the micro-surfacing plays it’s part. The layer of micro-surfacing locks-in the chips of the chip seal and provides a smooth, hard, dense, black surface. This is a heavy-duty “sandwich” that is about a half inch thick and wears like iron. If the structure below is strong enough to carry the traffic loads a Cape Seal can outperform a thin hotmix overlay.
Our company is also an applicator of hot-pour elastomeric asphalt sealants. This includes the rout-and-seal methods with ASTM D1190 and ASTM D3405 sealants and also fiber-asphalt over-banding method.
Byrne and Jones Construction, our sister company in St. Louis, Missouri, rounds out our pavement maintenance services by providing their expertise in milling, patching, hotmix paving, and pavement markings.
We strive to use the right product at the right time to extend pavement life cycles. Our mission is to preserve pavements with high-quality, environmentally-friendly products. For more information on this, visit our friends at the Foundation for Pavement Preservation at www.pavementpreservation.org or the Pavement Preservation Journal.
Micro-surfacing is in the same family as another asphalt emulsion product known as slurry seal. Slurry seal was developed in the 1930s and improved with technological developments in the 1960s. Slurry seal is a more true "sealer" for asphalt pavements. It has a higher asphalt content design and is not used on thick applications.
