Rutting Repairs
Rutting
As base material is displaced, channels are created in the wheel paths, known as rutting. These vertical deformations along the wheel paths are caused by the consolidation or lateral movement of pavement layers. The rutting could be due to compaction for traffic, unstable or insufficient materials especially in the base. These ruts usually form at loading docks or other areas where vehicle traffic has a frequency of higher loads. To avoid this, greater depths of base or aggregate base are used in areas where traffic has a frequency of higher loads.
Remedy
Less severe areas of rutting - usually under two inches depth - can usually be repaired by overlaying the sunken areas while more severe areas - more than two inches - can only be repaired by complete resurfacing, which includes excavating the old pavement and re-compacting the base and subgrade before repaving. If the problem is determined to be high loads from traffic volumes, a deeper aggregate base and thicker layers of asphalt will be used in deeper courses to avoid the problem in the future.
