Composite Pavement

Usage: Standard

Commonly known as asphalt, composite pavement is used throughout the City, consisting of a three inch layer of asphalt bitumen and stone aggregate over a nine inch concrete base. The asphalt is compacted by a roller to create a smooth and solid road surface.

Crown Heights, Brooklyn
69th Street, Queens

Benefits

  • Provides smooth and durable road surface with high friction coefficient
  • Material is widely available and cost-effective
  • Impervious quality channels water to the curb on crowned roadways
  • Dark color hides dirt and stains and creates background for high-contrast markings
  • Easy to maintain and patch
  • Can be pigmented or imprinted for varied purposes
  • Asphalt can be recycled

Considerations

Review Key Considerations

  • Prone to rutting and shoving under high volumes of heavy vehicles
  • Contributes to urban heat-island effect
  • Impervious surfaces send runoff to catch basins, thereby contributing to combined-sewer overflows (CSOs) during large rainstorms; consider Porous Asphalt or Precast Porous Concrete Panel where feasible.

Application

  • Standard for roadbeds of all city streets unless otherwise specified
  • Preferred road surface for cycling

Design

Specification source: DOT Standard Specifications Section 2.05, 3.01, 4.01, 4.02

Detail source: DOT Standard Details drawing H-1034 and related
 

  • Minimum 3-inch-thick wearing course, typically
  • Roadway should be crowned to drain stormwater from the road surface
  • Requires concrete base
  • Sustainability opportunity: High recycled asphalt (RAP) content
  • Sustainability opportunity: Warm-mix asphalt
  • Sustainability opportunity: High-SRI asphalt
  • Sustainability opportunity: Porous asphalt in parking lanes

Maintenance

  • DOT generally maintains this material
  • Easier to repair than other roadway materials
↑