Nobody was more surprised than Marianne Tikky, manager of roadways & parks with the City of Niagara Falls, when local media turned its attention on the city’s pilot project using a cold mix repair product that works, even in water-filled potholes.
A press release issued by the city in mid-February announced that crews were using a new and improved bituminous patching material, UPM Permanent Pavement Repair, mentioning that “the new material has proven effective and has resulted in increased efficiencies.”
The press release spurred a flurry of media attention as local television, radio and newspaper outlets picked up the story, interviewing everyone from Niagara Falls mayor Jim Diodati who praised the product on television, to representatives of Canadian distributor strataWORKS Canada Ltd. and local bulk cold mix producer Lakeside Landscape.
Mass media coverage notwithstanding, UPM Permanent Pavement Repair has proved to be an effective cold mix pothole repair compound, says Tikky.
“We started with a few test sites using the UPM product and over the course of the winter we started using it more and more,” she says.
“We’ve filled between 5,000 to 6,000 potholes from mid-January to mid-April. Before we got back to hot asphalt we filled about 3,500 potholes using cold patch UPM.”
Tikky notes that work crews were instructed by the distributor to “broom out” any loose debris, but not to worry about the water.
The product is more expensive than regular cold mix — about $4 more per pothole. — but Tikky notes that a return visit to any pothole would cost significantly more than that.
“All of the test sites are still holding in place,” she says. “In some cases, we’ve had parts of the road breaking up around the patch, but the patch has still held, which is a good sign.”
Derek Geisel, president of strataWORKS Canada, has represent the product in Canada since 2014 after seeing it demonstrated by parent company Unique Paving Materials at a U.S. trade show.
“Each pothole is guaranteed by the manufacturer to stay filled for one year,” he says.
“You don’t have to cut the hole square. Once you fill it, it’s sufficient to hand tamp it or just drive over it with a vehicle.”
Geisel says the product has been used in more than 75 communities across Canada. His sales pitch typically involves a free demonstration in the worst conditions imaginable.
“I fill the pothole with water at sub-freezing temperature, throw the material into a pothole and just stomp the material in with my feet,” he says.
“We did a test application in Yellowknife at -35 Celsius that proved very successful.”
Geisel notes that the compound is made up largely of traditional cold mix materials — aggregate, polymer and liquid asphalt cement.
“The proprietary ingredient not only allows it to stick in the pothole, it prevents the material from sticking to tires as vehicles drive over it,” he says.
Like many cities across Canada, Calgary has also experienced a rough winter for potholes.
“We haven’t been able to get the hot boxes out so we’ve been using plenty of cold mix,” says Jim Fraser, central district manager of roads maintenance for the City of Calgary.
“The UPM product has proved to be a better performer for potholes from our standpoint, particularly in potholes that are wet. We started using it in bags and have now moved to using it in bulk.”
While UPM performance sold Niagara Falls on the product, Tikky notes that the economics of pothole repair are also important, especially with rising fuel prices taking a toll on repair and maintenance budgets.
“Being able to buy a tonne or two of this product in bulk and being able to return the unused amount to the supplier at the end of the day helped to make the economic case for using it,” she says.
“They provided a rebate by weight and just recycled it through the pug mill.”
I have been a Highway maintenance worker my whole life. Started a business 15 years ago. And started using upm approximately 5 years ago. This is the only high-performance product I have ever used in my 25 years doing this. It is nice to finally have a product that is workable in the minus temperatures of western Canada.