Any asphalt experts here?

[Mafesto]

Thanks for the opinions guys.

Legal action would be a last resort, and I was curious if I was out of line for even considering that avenue.

My hang-up=
If the base was inadequate, then shouldn't the contractor have recognized this?
I have friends in concrete, and they know an inadequate base will result in future failure that they will have to either deal with or justify to customer why they don't have to deal with.
Common sense tells me the contractor would want to avoid either scenario, thus recognizing potential problems with base.
Am I looking at this wrong here?

 

[Good to Go]

No, but you're interjecting the thought process that people should do the right thing; two things come to mind with that. Not all companies do and some actually don't know any better (having a business or contractor lic doesn't mean they got it all figured out). Both can leave you with a bad result.

And that other thing comes up, options and money. I've pointed out things that weren't up to snuff and put it in the owners lap to make a decision. If there isn't money on the table to fix it, do it correctly, whatever, they still very often choose to go ahead and do 'the best we can' with what they've got...even if it's an inferior product. At that point, who's problem does it become?

Mafesto, I'm just speaking in broad terms, not to your situation particularly. Clearly, your road sucks. I'd be looking at the proposal details (the written ones, 'cause they're the only one's that matter) and move from there.

 

[Jeff C]

Mafesto:


This is like Dejavu all over again.

We had the same thing happen on our road!

When the road cracks so bad that you can lift up a piece of the pavement, do me a favor and get a shovel and dig down and get a cross section of what is under there.

In our case the original contractor did not dig down deep enough and get rid of the clay underneath. I dug down after we had a frost heave a few years ago, and there was 2" of asphalt, 3" of class5, and under that CLAY as far as I could dig.

It was spongy enough that when a garbage truck drove over it, you could see the pavement indent slightly as it went by!

They ended up digging down 4 feet and pulling out all the soil, then putting in drain tile, then installing sand, then class 5, then grading properly to ensure runoff, then asphalt.........


Finally $5,534.89 per household the job was done right.

 

[Mafesto]

Mafesto:


This is like Dejavu all over again.

We had the same thing happen on our road!

When the road cracks so bad that you can lift up a piece of the pavement, do me a favor and get a shovel and dig down and get a cross section of what is under there.

In our case the original contractor did not dig down deep enough and get rid of the clay underneath. I dug down after we had a frost heave a few years ago, and there was 2" of asphalt, 3" of class5, and under that CLAY as far as I could dig.

It was spongy enough that when a garbage truck drove over it, you could see the pavement indent slightly as it went by!

They ended up digging down 4 feet and pulling out all the soil, then putting in drain tile, then installing sand, then class 5, then grading properly to ensure runoff, then asphalt.........


Finally $5,534.89 per household the job was done right.

Everything you said applies here as well.
This sucks!

 

[mrh]

That type of cracking is refered to as aligator cracking and can be caused by a number of things, but the most common as other have said is poor compaction and/or inadequate road section for the the use. I am guessing this is a private road so the road section may be very thin.

I would definately look through the construction documnets and see what the requirements were for compaction, geotechnical evaluation of the existing road conditions and what road section was designed.

Here is a link with a little information on Aligator Cracking.

http://training.ce.washington.edu/wsdot/modules/09_pavement_evaluation/09-7_body.htm

Although they say that a possible repair is an overlay, that will only work if the road cross section is in-adequate but the underlying sub base is structuraly adequate and properly compacted.

 

[Sidehiller]

After 3 1/2 years the areas that aren't cracking may be okay. The alligator areas need to be excavated at least 2 feet, then a geotextile such as Mirafi 500X can be laid down to keep the clay from coming up into the gravels. Next you would need a minimum of
12" of compacted pitrun and 4" of road base. Patch the bad areas with 2" of asphalt, then overlay the entire road with another 2 " of asphalt. It will be expensive, but cheaper now than later.
Also, even if the compaction tests pass you can still have cracking if the gravel doesn't bridge and pumps under a load.