Why Use Quiet Asphalt?

Construction & Contractors Blog

If you want to use asphalt to build a road or paving surface, then you can use specialized product mixes to suit your environmental needs. For example, quiet asphalt is a good option for roads, parking lots, and even some home driveways.

What makes quiet asphalt different from traditional mixes? What are the advantages of using it?

What Is Quiet Asphalt?

Asphalt is an effective and long-lasting surface; however, it can create some noise. For example, vehicles on an asphalt road will increase noise levels in the immediate area.

Every car or truck that drives on the surface creates pockets of trapped air as they touch the asphalt. This air creates sound waves that increase noise in the surrounding area. While this noise is louder on large roads with heavy vehicular use, it can also impact parking lots and even home driveways.

Quiet asphalt has noise-dampening effects. These mixes either contain materials to reduce the noise that finished paving creates or are manufactured a little differently from regular asphalt.

For example, some quiet mixes include rubber materials such as recycled tires. Here, the rubber makes the asphalt flex more. The surface is less noisy because air takes longer to escape from the rubberized surface. It comes out at a lower rate of pressure which is also quieter.

Fine-graded asphalt mixes have the same effects but they work by changing the sound frequency of the finished surface. The smaller particles in the mix reduce the level of contact noise a surface can make.

In some cases, you can use different production techniques, such as open-grading, to make asphalt surfaces less noisy. These mixes incorporate air pockets and voids into the surface. They dampen sound by carrying it down to the surface rather than allowing it to disperse into the environment.

What Are the Benefits of Quiet Asphalt?

The main benefit of using quiet asphalt is sound reduction. If you have to meet environmental noise reduction standards, then this kind of mix will help you out. It also works well if you simply want to keep noise levels low for your building or neighbors.

However, quiet asphalt products also have some other benefits that you will find useful. For example, if you use an open-graded product, then your surface will be more porous. It will have more efficient drainage properties that will extend the asphalt's working life.

For more advice, contact an asphalt paving service such as Phend & Brown and ask about their quiet asphalt products. They can help you choose the right mix for your project.

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8 September 2022

Contract Work, Construction Work, and Everything Between

The world around you consists of a lot of built structures. Obviously, these include a lot of buildings, such as schools, homes, and places of business. It also includes roads and sidewalks. But it also includes things you may not think about as often, such as playgrounds, telephone poles, and sewer systems. All of these built structures common and uncommon, are made by construction workers or contractors of some type. They're pretty incredible, their work is pretty incredible, and we are excited to write about both them and their work here on this blog. We hope you enjoy reading it, probably while inside some type of built structure.