Asphalt or Concrete Paving – Which Is the Best Choice For your Milwaukee Commercial Paving Project?

How does asphalt or concrete compare when choosing between them for your driveway, parking lot or sidewalk project?

Milwaukee weather can cause a toll on your paving investments and the temperatures  in Southeastern Wisconsin can jump between freezing and thawing within hours in the spring and fall.  Which paving option will last longer and require less maintenance?

It depends.  There are a number of factors that can determine this.  Here is a small guide to help you figure out whether asphalt or concrete paving would be best for your project.

Paving Considerations

• Is your pavement private or for public use?
• How much traffic will be on your pavement each day?
• Will you be able to keep traffic off the newly paved area for a while?
• Will you be storing heavy loads on your pavement?
• How big is the area you need to pave?
• Which is more important to you, cost or how long the pavement lasts

How does the weather affect Asphalt and Concrete Pavement

Cold

• Asphalt isn’t affected by colder temperatures and it isn’t harmed by contact with road salt.
• Asphalt absorbs heat from the sun which will cause snow and ice to melt faster than it would on a concrete driveway.
• Concrete is prone to frost heaves, expansion, and contraction
• Concrete deteriorates when you use salt

Hot

• Concrete Paving is preferred for areas that get a lot of heat or sun.
• Asphalt paving softens in extreme heat becoming oily or sticky
• Asphalt will re-harden as soon as things cool down at night or on a cooler day.  If this happens over and over, you can see sag and cracks begin to form.

Asphalt and concrete maintenance and installation

Asphalt paving can be installed cheaper and faster than Concrete paving.  But remember that there is also a lot of maintenance work that is needed to keep the asphalt in good condition.

Concrete paving costs more to install, but it doesn’t require as much maintenance work as asphalt.

When maintenance work is needed, Concrete is more difficult and expensive to repair then asphalt does.

Does Concrete or Asphalt last longer?

It is common for concrete to last 30 to 40 years while Asphalt around 20 to 30 years.  Of course, this will also depend on traffic and how well your paving has been maintained.