Was just wondering why some areas have worse frost heaves than others? There is a stretch of rt 119 that runs through my town that is notorious for having the worst frost heaves of anywhere in cheshire county. This year they are even worse than normal.
I'd like to see cities start putting out pothole maintenance bids. I see these guys out there putt cold patch in a hole that's filled with water. 10 minutes later the cold patch is all over the road.
High subsoil moisture/poor drainage.
What pushcat has said is right. That is the majority cause of frost heaves. Pavement condition aslo plays a part. If there a crakcs, or it is a porus material, it will hold water in the pavement itself.
Thnks guys!! Well there are most definitly cracks. There will be a million more after this year. Poor drainage can't be the only reason can it? I say that because there are a couple places were they are bad with a river running right next to road, also on hills. There's another section that runs through a marsh/swamp, thats never really filled with water. Worst part is there is no avoiding them for me, there are only 2 ways to get to or from my house east or west on rt 119. Some of these heaves are up to 12" deep, practically need to wear a kidney belt.
Poorly drained soil will hold moisture and when it freezes, the soil "expands". It only has one way to go - up . If the soil is uniform, you never know the road has raised. The "bumps" come when the soil composition changes. The higher the moisture, the higher it goes. We had a 2 lane road here built over the marshy soils along the river. Everything was good until they put new culverts and sanitary sewer leads across the road. They backfilled with clean sand. Big mistake . In the winter, the road over the marsh soils would rise 6-9 inches but the trenches stayed put. The road authority would go out and fill in the dips with blacktop (which stayed during the winter). In the spring after the frost would leave, the same road guys would have to out and remove the "speed bumps". The did that for years until the road was rebuilt to 4 lanes and extra sand subbase was put under the road.
Can also add that the thickness of filling is also important in this case. U can have the same soil, but a thin layer above a concrete pipe, makes that area freeze before the rest around, because of the earth warming. Then u get a speed bump above the pipe, and of course a very slippery icy area.... And thats not nice when the pipe is in a turn on the road.....
I haven't really noticed that many frost heaves this year, but I think thats just because there are so many potholes this year that you don't notice the heaves.
Ours are about as bad as I have ever seen them, and we have 8-10 weeks left. Even the state road had to be shut down the other night because cars were breaking the wheels off the cars.
There are some pretty nice ones in michigan, but the county is doing a pretty good job of coldpatching them, when the weather warms up for a day or two.
I haven't seen them this bad before either. But this section of 119 is always bad. Just this year real bad. Worst part is they'll never fix it either.