Does concrete last longer than asphalt?
The New Jersey Turnpike provides a good example of the life cycle of an asphalt pavement. That pavement has been in use for 50 years under very heavy traffic, and the chief engineer says he thinks it can last another 50 years. That’s what we call the Perpetual Pavement. Asphalt pavements can last a lifetime because it’s possible to maintain them just with milling and overlays, and the deeper portion of the pavement structure remains sound. If you design a pavement correctly for the amount of traffic it will have to stand up to, you can have actually a permanent pavement structure. With our new heavy-duty surface pavements, it is possible for overlays to last more than 15 to 20 years. It just makes sense to design a pavement so that it will serve you long-term, not so that it has to be replaced at a given point in time.
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