Asphalt Paving Blog

Ridgewood Baptist Church receives a reconstructed and repaved asphalt parking lot - Wolf Paving (Case Study)

Ridgewood Baptist Church, located in Brookfield, was looking for some help with construction and re-paving on their parking lot. Marty Marks of Ridgewood Baptist Church approached Wolf Paving with the goal of having their worn-out parking lot reconstructed, which involves removing the top layer of asphalt and the subgrade, regrading the area, adding additional sub-layer materials and paving the surface with new asphalt.

After determining Ridgewood Baptist Church’s project scope and needs, Wolf Paving sent estimator Kent Breitenfeldt to perform an inspection of the job site and to write up a detailed estimate. Upon viewing the parking lot and noting the numerous cracks, potholes, uneven areas and patches, it was determined that the parking lot was beyond its useful life and needed to be demolished and rebuilt.

Asphalt pavement typically has a useful life between 20 and 40 years when it is properly maintained. Wolf Paving recommends annual cleaning and crack sealing, seal coating after five years and slurry sealing 10 years after install.

Parking Lot Pulverization

The first step to reconstructing a parking lot involves pulverizing and removing the old asphalt surface and sub-layer. Jim Larson, the project manager for this parking lot reconstruction, partnered with PMI to perform the pulverization, which involves breaking and crushing the old parking lot surface into small pieces.

Wolf Paving kept some of the crushed material and sub-layer on-site to add to the foundation layer of the parking lot, which adds thickness and stability for the new surface while reducing construction costs. The rest of the material was sent to Wolf Paving’s recycling plants to be further crushed and manufactured into foundation material and pavement.

Once the site was prepared, Wolf Paving proof rolled the area to look for bad ground and soft spots. Several soft spots were noticed. If the pavement is built on top of unstable areas, it significantly reduces the life-span of the paved surface. Construction was paused while the areas were examined in detail. Soft spots can be caused by a variety of factors, including decomposition of organic materials below the surface and water penetration.

In this instance, the soft spots were caused by water penetration. Soft spots can be corrected in a variety of ways, including undercutting, which involves removing surface layers and ground until stable soil is reached and backfilling with foundation layers to solidify the underlying surface. The other option involves letting the area dry and testing the stability after all the excess moisture has evaporated.

wpridgewoodchurchAfter speaking with Marty and informing him of the available options, all parties agreed to let the areas dry out then perform additional stability tests. Once the soil was dry, it was determined to be stable. This saved Ridgewood Baptist Church a considerable sum of money and time.

With help and insight from Marty and Wolf Paving’s experience in reconstructing parking lots, the project was completed on-time and under budget.

“During our first meeting on site with Kent from Wolf Paving we had many questions and discussed what we were looking for in the project at Ridgewood. In our discussions, we found that Wolf Paving was interested in giving us a quality finished project and didn’t push unnecessary extras. Once the asphalt was removed we found some problem areas with our base. In meeting with Jim, our Project Manager, we talked about letting the base dry out and with it being summer, time was on our side. Two weeks later we were ready to pave. Solid advice from Jim kept the project on budget. When on the site, I found everyone was very cordial and respectful of the church property. I have to say it was a good fit.”
Marty Marks – Ridgewood Baptist Church

For all your parking lot reconstruction and repaving needs, contact Wolf Paving. For the Milwaukee area, dial 262-965-2121. For the Madison area, dial 608-249-7931.

Topics: Asphalt Parking Lot, church parking lot repaving