Roadway & Laneway Paving in Ottawa

Roads are built to shed water, not just to be flat

The single biggest difference between a road that lasts twenty years and one that fails in five is what happens to water. A properly built roadway is crowned or cross-sloped so runoff moves off the travelled surface into a ditch, swale or catch basin instead of soaking through the shoulder and undermining the base.

On long rural approaches and shared laneways in the Ottawa area, that usually means paying attention to the ditching and shoulders as much as to the asphalt itself. We look at where the water goes before we look at what the surface should be.

Built for repeated, heavier traffic

A shared laneway serving several households, a condo access road, or a farm approach takes trucks, deliveries and winter equipment. That means a deeper compacted granular base and an asphalt structure specified for the actual traffic, not for a passenger car.

We also pay attention to the edges. Unsupported asphalt edges on a road crumble under the first wheel that runs off the pavement, so shoulders get built up and compacted to support the edge rather than left to drop away.

What's included

• Assessment of existing drainage, ditching and shoulder condition
• Excavation or reclamation of the existing surface where required
• Deeper compacted granular base specified for the traffic the road carries
• Crown or cross-slope set so runoff leaves the travelled surface
• Hot-mix asphalt placed by paver and compacted to a consistent density
• Shoulder build-up and edge support so the pavement edge does not break down
• Traffic management that keeps access open for residents where possible