EZ Street asphalt provide an answer the the UK’s Pothole Problems.
The symptoms of a climate crisis are wreaking havoc on our UK road networks. Extreme weather conditions and contrasting seasonal changes in temperature and precipitation levels are to blame. Dangerous cracks are opening in the surface of the roads resulting in the rapid formation of potholes.
This year’s ALARM Report figures for England and Wales revealed that road conditions have worsened since last year, with 7,240 miles fewer “good” condition roads and an additional 1,100 miles of “poor” roads.
The result comes at a great cost to citizens who rely on these roads for everyday movement and places a heavy burden on local authorities and road contractors to find an effective solution to the UK pothole crisis.
Unfortunately, traditional methods of road resurfacing and pothole repair are costly, time-consuming, and weather dependant. As a result, road maintenance work is often stalled, or put-on hold whenever weather conditions take a turn for the worse.
As traditional asphalt installation requires heavy machinery and a team of professional plant operators, road repair work can be incredibly costly. Whether a road requires a full-depth repair and replacement for large scale damage or thermal patching to mend potholes, the necessary equipment required to heat, spread, and flatten traditional asphalt does not come cheap.
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Another cost that ought to be considered is storage. Once asphalt is heated it must be used within 2-3 hours as it becomes unworkable when it cooled and cannot be reheated. To keep asphalt hot for longer it must be stored in a specialist Hot Box which is heated using gas burners. This creates a list of additional costs for road contractors and exacerbates the original problem of climate change by burning more fossil fuels.
Many of the alternatives to traditional asphalt are often no better, utilising diesel or recycled plastic in their cold asphalt products which lack longevity and make it impossible to recycle the road surface at a later date when a full-depth repair and replacement is required.
Road contractors are seeking a better solution to their pothole repair problems, one that is more cost-effective, easy to use and permanent. Such solutions can help contractors combat the impact of climate change without causing more damage to the environment.
Grant Shewan, Red Stag Materials’ managing director believes he has the answer.
“EZ Street is a high-quality, less expensive alternative to traditional asphalt repairs, but crucially, is also more sustainable by substituting the diesel found in many cold asphalt solutions with biofuel to produce a cold asphalt that is less reliant on fossil fuels.
“The compaction-based product can be stored for up to 12 months, easily and quickly installed, allowing for immediate use, and workable in all weather conditions.”
As EZ Street asphalt is lighter than regular asphalt (EZ Street is 2 tonnes / m3 and asphalt is 2.4 tonne / m3), projects require approximately 10% less overall tonnage. Less asphalt used equals lower costs for contractors. If there is any asphalt left over from the job, it can be easily scooped up and re-added to the stockpile for later use, making it less wasteful and more environmentally friendly.
Red Stag Materials have brought EZ Street asphalt to the UK from the USA and Canada where it has been thoroughly tried and tested. Red Stag Materials are confident that their cold, hydrophobic, compaction-based product is the clear solution to the pothole crisis here in the UK, and will translate to significant savings in manhours, equipment, storage, and environmental costs for road contractors.
For more information about EZ Street and the range of road surfacing products Red Stag Materials supply, visit https://redstagmaterials.com/.
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