3 Ways Clean Asphalt Improves Road Maintenance

Clean Asphalt, Clean Road Maintenance

If you’re familiar with road maintenance, you probably have a good pair of gloves nearby. From dirt and rain filled potholes to torn bags of asphalt, it’s a dirty job by nature. Bagged asphalt is especially messy unless you’re using clean asphalt.

Bagged asphalt is usually a tarry mixture of oil and rocks that is prone to sticking to everything it comes in contact with. Tools, clothes, vehicles, and building floors often find themselves covered in tar any time this stuff is involved.

A few broken bags may come with the territory, but a difficult material can affect how well you can make your repairs. RockAsphalt© helps you improve road maintenance by reducing the time you spend cleaning up after your material. Here’s three benefits of clean asphalt that can make the job of pothole repair a little less messy.

Clean Asphalt is Dry to the Touch

“Tarry” is probably the first word that comes to mind when someone thinks of asphalt. That’s because most manufactured asphalts are a mixture of gravel covered in an oily chemical bonding agent. That’s also the reason anyone familiar with road maintenance is also familiar with a good pair of gloves.

These oily chemicals add to the weight of the asphalt rocks, making the material heavier and challenging to work with. Broken bags of asphalt are notoriously frustrating to clean. While broken bags come with the territory, oily materials can make for a time-consuming endeavor.

RockAsphalt© has the unique characteristic of being completely dry to the touch, clean asphalt. That’s because the binding agent of RockAsphalt© is naturally-occurring bitumen imbued limestone rocks. Our asphalt remains completely dry until it is compacted.

The material won’t adhere to tools or clothes, making application clean and simple. Bagged asphalt’s tendency to stick to different substrates can greatly affect the performance of the patch as well.

The chemical binders are prone to adhering to truck tires and tamping equipment, reducing the material needed to repair the damaged pavement. Clean asphalt, like RockAsphalt©, won’t stick to truck tires, rakes, gloves and other asphalt related equipment, meaning your material stays where it’s needed for your repair to perform.

Clean Asphalt Doesn’t Track Into Vehicles or Buildings

Another benefit of clean asphalt is that it won’t track into buildings and vehicles. If you’re working with cold patch asphalt, wherever you go, the patch comes too. It’s common for the interiors and exteriors of work trucks hauling cold patch asphalt to be covered in these tarry binders.

While cleaning is a regular part of any maintenance crew’s routine, excessive build up of tar can lead to hours worth of cleaning and unusable, dirty equipment.

All road maintenance is going to attract a little bit of dirt and grime, but using clean asphalt could mean a few less hours cleaning up after your material and a few more hours using it to repair potholes.

Using a clean asphalt alternative can add hours to your road maintenance schedule by limiting the time it takes to clean, greatly increasing road crew productivity.

Clean Asphalt is 100% VOC Free

Clean asphalt isn’t just less tarry or messy to work with. It’s also 100% VOC free, making it better for workers and the environment.

Manufactured cold patch asphalt often relies on hazardous chemicals to create a bond. The chemical additives in manufactured bagged asphalt also sacrifices sustainability for performance. Basically the better a manufactured patch is, the more hazardous the material is for people and the environment.

That’s why so many manufactured patches rely on “storage exemption clauses” to bypass VOC regulations. That’s also the reason why so many manufactured mixes aren’t legal in states with high safety standards. Manufactured patches either offer performance or sustainability, never both.

Laws regulating hazardous substances and VOCs continue to grow stricter, both in the U.S. and internationally. This trend is likely to continue as experts learn more about the negative impact of chemicals on people’s health and the environment.

That’s why forward-thinking organizations are performing their road maintenance with clean asphalt like RockAsphalt©. Our material is 100% VOC free and it contains none of the other chemical binders that manufactured cold patches rely on. Our naturally-occurring, clean asphalt reduces health, environmental, and legal risks without compromising performance.

How Clean Asphalt Benefits You

Road maintenance can be messy and your paving materials are often the cause. Clean asphalt helps you skip the time spent washing tar off the beds of work trucks. Most importantly, your material stays where you need it most, securing a permanent asphalt repair.

Clean asphalt doesn’t just mean it’s easy to use, it means it’s safe to use as well. While we still recommend a good pair of gloves any time you use RockAsphalt©, our material is 100% VOC free, completely safe for workers and the environment.

It may be difficult to disassociate with asphalt with words like “tarry”, but clean asphalt is an alternative that’s changing how road maintenance is performed. Not only can you save time, money, and a whole lot of soap, you can also use a clean asphalt product that won’t cause potential harm to workers and the environment.

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