Usage: Standard
Commonly known as asphalt, this material is a mixture of asphalt bitumen and stone aggregate, laid on an aggregate base and compacted by a roller to form a smooth and solid road surface.
Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway
Queensboro Bridge Greenway
Benefits
- Provides smooth and durable road surface with high friction coefficient
- Material is widely available and cost-effective
- Dark color hides dirt and stains and creates background for high-contrast markings
- Easy to maintain and patch
- Can be pigmented or imprinted for varied purposes
- Asphalt can be recycled
Considerations
- Contributes to heat-island effect
- Similar in appearance to Composite Pavement used for roadways, but does not utilize a concrete base and is not meant for vehicular traffic
- Impervious surfaces send runoff to catch basins, thereby contributing to combined-sewer overflows (CSOs) during large rainstorms; consider Porous Asphalt
Application
Limited application in sidewalk; may be utilized in grade-separated bikeways
Design
Specification source: DOT Standard Specifications Section 2.05, 3.01, 4.01, 4.02
Detail source: DOT Standard Details drawing H-1034 and related
- Minimum 3-inch-thick wearing course, typically
- May use an aggregate base. Aggregate base must be sufficiently deep and compacted to provide a stable foundation
- Sustainability opportunity: High recycled asphalt (RAP) content
- Sustainability opportunity: Warm-mix asphalt
- Sustainability opportunity: High-SRI asphalt
Maintenance
DOT generally maintains this material