As EZ Street is a cold product and curing is not based on temperature, any cold joints or paver joints merge together to form one clean smooth mat from curb to curb. Cold Joints are recognized as an inbuilt weak point in any pavement surface. Except for any sub base or subsurface failures, the cold joint will inevitably be the first area of the pavement where failures will occur. Eliminating cold joints reduces future road maintenance costs and extends the usable life of the pavement.
The EZ Street surface will always remain slightly flexible through the life of the pavement. The product itself will remain slightly active through its life which will enable it to move fractionally with the movement of the traffic and the road structure itself. This movement does not lead to rutting or permanent deformation in the material but does result in the pavement being able to resist some reflective cracking and will also self-heal any cracks that do appear.
Any paving project will use 10% less EZ Street Asphalt per tonne than regular asphalt. For instance a paving job using 1,000 mt of asphalt will use only 900mt of EZ Street. EZ Street Asphalt is approximately 10% lighter per tonne than regular asphalt. The specific weight of the product is around 2.2 tonnes/m3 versus asphalt at around 2.4 tonnes/m3. This allows for approximately 10% extra square meters paved per tonne than can be completed with regular asphalt.
Paving with EZ Street Cold Asphalt dramatically reduces traffic noise produced by regular pavement and asphalt. The polymer within the EZ Street mix and the open grading of the cold asphalt combined absorb a significant amount of tire and road noise producing measurable sound reduction in the pavement. This is an ideal product for noise sensitive areas such as roads around hospitals and schools, etc. EZ Street Asphalt can also be used to pave quiet roads within residential neighborhoods generating significant cost savings by reducing the amount of sound barrier fencing on new or existing highways and project sites.
EZ Street can be used in virtually any weather condition. For a road maintenance or paving operations, planning and scheduling operations can be made well in advance with no considerations having to be made for rain or snow on the day of installation. EZ Street Asphalt can be utilized in sub-zero temperatures extending operations further into the winter season throughout the province. The shelf life of EZ Street enables the product to be stockpiled and stored on site in advance of a road maintenance or paving activity. Product will not have to be scheduled for pick up at an asphalt plant and taken to the project site. This can result in significant savings as it can reduce the number of trucks required to deliver product. In the event that there is no space on site for storage, EZ Street can be taken directly from the depot stockpile (in urban areas) and delivered to the site eliminating any reliance on an asphalt plant co-ordination and one less activity to manage when performing maintenance operations.
The product is always made in advance of the installation. Whether this is a week in advance or four months in advance, there is never a situation where the asphalt production and the paving are required to work in conjunction. This results in a logistical relief that is extremely beneficial for any project.
Paving and repairing potholes with EZ Street Asphalt is an easier operation than using regular asphalt. For example, plenty of time is available between paving and rolling to hand level and rake as equipment is cold and EZ Street is a cold product. This operation can even wait until the paving is completely finished before starting to rake, a process that can only lead to problems when working with hot asphalt. Secondly, the number of crew can be reduced as there is no longer the need for large crews to work in the time constraints required when using hot asphalt.
EZ Street Asphalt can be used in any geographical location totally independent of the location of an asphalt plant. Regular asphalt is limited in the distance it can realistically be transported from the plant due to the “window” the temperature of the product allows.