Hot rubberized crack sealing in Tahoma.

What the work involves

Cracks get cleaned out and filled with hot rubberized sealant that stays flexible through the freeze and thaw cycles. It is the highest-value pavement work at this elevation, because it stops water before water becomes ice inside your pavement.

Why it matters at this elevation

A crack is a funnel. Water runs in, freezes overnight, expands about nine percent, and levers the crack wider. The next day more water fits, and the cycle repeats through both shoulders of winter. Sealing the crack shuts the funnel before the base underneath gets wet.

Pavement in this range spends a long stretch under snow and then a long stretch cycling between melt and overnight refreeze. The refreeze does the damage. Water that ran into a crack at two in the afternoon is ice by nine at night, and ice takes up more room than the water did.

How the job runs

Sequence matters against the calendar too. Cracks sit at their narrowest in summer heat, so material placed then gets compressed rather than stretched when winter opens things back up. That is easier on the seal and it lasts longer for it.

Tahoma pavement specifically

Cabin and residential drives almost entirely. Shaded, needle-covered pavement needs more preparation than an open lot, and the schedule accounts for the extra drying time.

Pavement under continuous tree cover dries slowly, collects needles and organic litter, and holds moisture against the surface through most of the shoulder seasons.

Cracks here get treated as the priority item rather than the add-on, because the water they let in is what takes pavement apart at this elevation.

Tahoma sits at roughly 6,250 feet, and the pavement around it behaves accordingly. More on the area on our Tahoma service area page. We work the same corridor across the Truckee area, and the pavement guides go deeper on the physics if you want it.

Questions