Frequently Asked Questions About Asphalts

Different products that allow the pavement to adapt to the climatic characteristics of the area. Do you know what bitumen is? A question that you may have asked yourself on certain occasions and to which we will give a clear and succinct answer.

What is bitumen?

It is a binder with a black tone which can be solid or viscous at room temperature. If the temperature drops, this viscosity gradually disappears. One of its characteristics is that it is insensitive to water which, in addition to other properties, makes bitumen the ideal binder for road construction and waterproofing surfaces.

How do you build a road?

The construction of this linear infrastructure, which allows road traffic of vehicles in optimal conditions of safety and comfort, is a complex task. The majority of road pavements are built from bituminous mixes, characterized by a mixture of stones, selected according to the size and a certain quality (aggregates), and bitumen or asphalt, which is the binder that unites these aggregates. At a basic level of construction, a construction is built by spreading successive layers of asphalt, with different qualities and strengths. In terms of the final result, there will be differences if the road is in mountainous areas or if it needs land where there is none (embankments).

The pavement is made up of the last layers of the road, those which are in direct contact with vehicle tires and which show the most damage over time.

Why do cracks appear on the roads?

The continuous exposure of the bitumen, which protects the roads against the bad weather causes oxidation by the ultraviolet rays coming from the sun and in contact with oxygen. This situation causes the loss of the lightest parts of the pavement and, consequently, of the qualities of flexibility and of the adhesive capacities of the aggregates present in the asphalt.

Finally, the use of materials treated with cement in certain layers of the pavement can lead to shrinkage, setting, or thermal cracks.

Are all roads the same?

The characteristics of a country differ depending on the geographical area where a particular city is located. Depending on the climatic zone, there are pavements with different characteristics such as grain size or types of binders. Thus, the type of asphalt that is used for the roadway of a mountain is not the same as that of a highway located in a hot region.

Are bitumen, asphalt, and tar the same?

All of the products mentioned are black, viscous and very complex in composition and can be referred to as hydrocarbon-based binders. The differences come from their origin, because while the bitumen is a product derived from crude oil, pitch, and tar are products derived from coal. For its part, asphalt is a product of natural origin which can occur freely or enclosed in porous ores (asphaltic rocks).

Knowing the difference between these products, it should be remembered that the advantages of petroleum derivatives make it largely the element most used worldwide.

Is it possible to recycle the roads?

In Spain, road renovation has existed since the 1980s, but in the United States this technique has been used for decades. Recycling is a road rehabilitation technique that makes it possible to reuse materials from pavement layers that have already been in service: materials that have lost some of their original characteristics due to wear or aging, but it is possible to reuse for new pavement layers.

Skye Asphalt continues to acquire new customers and meet the highest quality standards. Carrying out hundreds and hundreds of asphalt paving jobs per year, we can safely say that we are asphalt paving experts in Plano, TX! We carry out asphalt work of all sizes, mainly in the residential and commercial field, but also in the institutional and municipal sectors.

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