Editor's note: An earlier version of this story contained inaccurate information. We regret the error and have made the necessary corrections.
A new form of road surface repair is debuting in Canada, courtesy of local company Prestige Patching Inc., and it could change the way road defects are dealt with from now on.
Dean Lang, company president, is the first to bring the spray-injection pothole patching equipment to the country, having teamed up with the UK-based company Velocity Road Repair Services who produce the equipment.
“With this company, this machine, this design, this is the first one in Canada,” said Lang.
“We’re very excited to bring Velocity into Canada,” said Tereen Mowrey, from Prestige Patching Inc. “Coming from the pothole capital of Canada, I think we’re very excited to be able to come up with an alternative solution to helping our roads.”
The way that crews patch problems in pavement now is highly susceptible to water pushing up through the asphalt patch from underground once temperatures hit freezing.
This new method uses a mix of aggregate and emulsion that is injected into the pothole or crack at a high velocity to seal and repair the defect. Because of the nature of the material, it’s a more durable repair than traditional asphalt patches.
“Our product is flexible. Asphalt doesn’t flex, it fractures as soon as there’s pressure underneath,” said Lang. “Ours will flex to a certain degree.”
Traditional repair methods last around a year before needing attention, but this method has an expected lifetime of three to five years and costs about one-third less than traditional repair. The aggregate mix features a variation of rock sizes, which helps fill in the tiny spaces to keep the patch more durable.
McAsphalt Industries, based out of Regina, has specially designed the emulsion for this particular operation, and Prestige Patching Inc. is hoping to have several more equipment trucks here by spring next year.
This particular method of road patching is used all over the world, from Europe to South America, and Velocity representative Gavin Blogg is looking forward to seeing its introduction to the Canadian climate, which is known for its harshness.
“We’ve always thought Canada would be a wonderful market for us, because you’ve got the winter, and the winter causes the damages to the roads,” said Blogg. “We’re focusing here because it's where the road networks best, to get it going.”
“I think [Prestige Patching] are the perfect people we want to work with,” added Blogg. “They understand mechanical issues, and that’s sometimes an issue when we sell machines abroad, we don’t always get this level of expertise and knowledge [in our clients].”
Lang and his crew ran a demo of the new technique on the entrance to the Pla-Mor Palace arena’s parking lot, patching a crack in the pavement and a substantial pothole in approximately 15 minutes.
With a crew of three, the process was quick and efficient, and the patched area was ready to be driven on almost immediately after the crew was finished.
“It’s an excellent solution for high-traffic areas, certainly for private enterprises that have parking lots, drive-throughs, heavy traffic areas, because it can be driven on so quickly afterward,” said Mowrey.
With a turnaround time that is less than half an hour, road crews would no longer have to block off roadways for extended periods of time to properly repair a defect in the road surface.
Prestige Patching Inc. is a company open to sub-contracting work, and can be found on their website or by contacting their operations manager Ron Wilder for a free quote.
