Maintenance
Routine maintenance
Routine maintenance involves standard upkeep and fixing minor defects before they become significant, such as repairing potholes and damaged signs, cleaning gutters and drains, mowing and clearing litter.
Periodic maintenance
Periodic maintenance is all the work we do on a regular basis that helps protect and restore our roads. This includes resurfacing work, focusing on the top layer of a road for sealing cracks and applying corrosion protection on bridges, or rehabilitation work when the structural layer of the road needs restoring.
Emergency maintenance
Emergency maintenance is the work we need to do after an extreme weather event or a critical incident damages the road or other road assets like overhead structures, bridges and signs.
Defects
Meandering cracking
Branch-like cracks varying in direction generally occurring from the impact of traffic on an aged road. If left untreated, it can turn into crocodile cracking.
Type: Periodic/seasonal
How are they / is it fixed?
Rehabilitation/periodic maintenance (restoring the structural layer of the road).
Crocodile cracking
Crocodile cracks are interconnected cracks that when formed, resemble the skin pattern of a crocodile. They usually appear along the wheel path of the road due to the damaging effects of traffic over time.
Type: Periodic/seasonal
How are they / is it fixed?
Rehabilitation/periodic maintenance (restoring the structural layer of the road).
Longitudinal cracking
Unconnected linear cracks running longways along the road surface and can appear as one single crack or as a series of parallel cracks. Single cracks are often caused by the drying effects of certain tree roots, such a gum trees, especially in an area with underlying soils such as clays, which dry out. These cracks can also be due to poorly constructed joints in a road’s surface.
Type: Periodic/seasonal
How are they / is it fixed?
Sealing individual cracks can be done manually by applying air pressure to clean out the cracks, then filling with hot bitumen.
Road rutting
Road rutting is a depression or groove worn into a road along the wheel path, caused by the damaging effect of heavy vehicles, especially in areas of braking and acceleration such as traffic lights and intersections. It can also occur when the road pavement is not strong enough.
Type: Periodic/seasonal
How are they / is it fixed?
Resurfacing/periodic maintenance (re-sealing the top layer of the road) or rehabilitation, depending on the depth of the rutting.
Potholes
A pothole is a bowl-shaped indent in the road surface, which generally has irregular or rough edges and nearly vertical sides at the top of the hole. These are caused by water getting through cracks in the road surface, and weakening the underlying road. Traffic driving over the weakened area then worsens and widens the area.
Type: Routine
How are they / is it fixed?
Can be repaired with asphalt to temporarily fix the hazard. We then monitor the area in case more substantial treatment is needed.
Bitumen oxidisation
Bitumen oxidisation is the term given to road bitumen that hardens over time from the effects of UV radiation from sunlight. Bitumen usually hardens faster in hotter, drier environments, thinner layers of bitumen will also harden quicker too. When bitumen oxidisation occurs, the top layer of the road becomes brittle and can crack and needs to be resealed.
Type: Periodic/seasonal
How are they / is it fixed?
Resurfacing/periodic maintenance (re-sealing the top layer of the road).
Road Roughness
The shape of the road can change over time, becoming bumpy, affecting the ease of driving. It can be caused by the road not being strong enough or from movements in the underlying soil.
How are they / is it fixed?
Depending on the extent of the roughness it may be treated by resurfacing or rehabilitation.
Surface Texture Loss
The road surface can become slippery and appear glossy, affecting the grip of vehicles on the road. Often caused by stones in the road surface moving into the layers below due to impacts of traffic, made worse in hot weather.
How are they / is it fixed?
Depending on the age or condition of the road surface, it can be treated by waterblasting or resurfacing the road.