Initial Construction

Ensuring an appropriate pavement design for the expected load stress as well as ensuring its proper construction can add a significant amount of usable life to any pavement structure. Many building plans do not specify an adequate design for parking lots, especially in the main drive lanes, entrance, loading zones, and dumpster areas.

Often times these specifications recommend 2.5 inches of surface asphalt in areas that should have a total of 6" of asphalt consisting of 4" of base asphalt topped with 2" of surface asphalt. This is one reason why premature failures tend to occur within these areas.

Another significant design and construction item that should be considered is the elevation and drainage capability of area being paved. If the area is within a high water table area of resides at the lower elevations of a larger area, then consideration should be given to adding subsurface drainage, or subgrade & base reinforcement such as Geogrid, etc.

Likewise, the original subgrade and soil conditions should be taken into account when designing the base and pavement structures.

Before investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in the construction of your new parking lot, ensure that its design and construction will hold up to the project specific requirements. This will not only save you many thousands of dollars in repairs, but also will minimize your headaches in the future.