Best Practices for Asphalt Parking Lot Maintenance
Introduction:
Parking lot pavement is typically designed to last between 20 and 40 years, but examples of
parking lots that don’t need to be replaced until long after the end of their design life are
common. Timely, appropriate maintenance often makes the difference. This document will help
you evaluate your current parking lot pavement, develop a maintenance plan appropriate for the
present pavement condition, and anticipate how much can be saved by timely maintenance
instead of allowing this valuable asset to deteriorate and fail prematurely.
Evaluation:
Severity, extent, and type of distress are the primary factors used to evaluate pavement. The
entire parking lot should be surveyed, noting the type of distress present at each deficient area,
how large the deficient area is, and classifying the severity of each deficiency as low, moderate,
or high. Once you have a listed the type, size, and severity of distress at each deficient area, the
appropriate corrective process can be determined. For a 30,000 square foot parking lot this may
look like Table 1. Types of distress are discussed in detail in Appendix A.
Type
Pothole
Pothole
Block Cracking
Block Cracking
Patch Deterioration
Extent
12 locations, 40 sq. ft.
6 locations, 30 sq. ft.
400 sq. ft
500 sq. ft.
100 sq. ft.
Severity
Moderate
Severe
Low
Moderate
High
Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, and Maintenance:
After pavement has been evaluated, a plan to correct existing deficiencies and proactively
maintain pavement to keep it in good condition should be created and implemented. This plan
should be developed for the length of time the owner expects to retain the property, since longterm plans are best for anticipating capital needs. Keep in mind that paving technology changes
rapidly, which means anticipated maintenance may be modified or replaced with newer
processes and products. The maintenance plan should be divided into two phases
Preventive Plan:
Preventive maintenance should be performed as a proactive measure to keep pavement in good
condition and generally consists of crack repair, application of sealcoat and slurry seal, and thin
overlays as needed to address normal wear and tear. While these maintenance operations are
sometimes used to try to wring a couple more years of life out of pavement in need of
reconstruction or rehabilitation, this is generally a waste of money. Once a parking lot is in fair
to poor condition, (XX% or more showing any level of distress) it is more economical to suspend
maintenance operations and apply the maintenance budget to future reconstruction or
rehabilitation.
Annual Maintenance:

Cleaning and crack sealing. Keeping pavement free of debris and sealing cracks and
joints annually will help prevent standing water that can cause damage. Wide cracks
(greater than 3” in width) – need patching or other, Cracks that are 1” - 3” in width,
use a mastic repair.
5-Year Maintenance:

Annual maintenance plus seal coat. The purpose of a seal coat is to renew the asphalt
surface that has worn off of the top layer of aggregate or been oxidized and to seal the
pavement surface to help keep water from entering the tiny voids that allow asphalt to
expand and contract seasonally.
10-year maintenance:

Annual maintenance plus slurry seal. The purpose of slurry seal is much the same as
seal coat except that it also replaces some of the thickness that may have worn away
in heavy traffic areas and can fill minor ruts.
15-year maintenance:

Same as 5-year maintenance
10-year maintenance:

Thin overlay to renew the wearing surface and address any areas that have developed
low-severity distress.
Corrective Plan:
The corrective plan may consist of reconstruction or rehabilitation. Reconstruction is generally
the best approach if more than XX% of the parking lot shows moderate or severe distress.
Historically, this has meant removing the existing pavement, scarifying and re-compacting base
material, then placing a new asphalt mat (typically 3” to 5”) in accordance with a geotechnical
engineer’s recommendations. A more environmentally friendly and often more cost effective
approach is to recycle existing pavement in place using a process called full depth reclamation
(FDR). This process grinds up existing pavement while mixing it into the existing base. The
resulting material is then compacted, resulting in a thicker, higher quality base that will provide
the same performance with a thinner asphalt mat than is possible by removing and replacing the
pavement. Recycled asphalt has long been recognized as an excellent road base – why not re-use
it without the expense of trucking it to a storage facility first?
Rehabilitation usually consists of repairing potholes and other localized deficiencies followed by
a thin overlay (≤ 1 ½”) or milling to remove distressed surface material and placing a thicker
overlay. Core samples may need to be taken to determine how much material should be removed
and how thick the overlay should be. A rule of thumb is to consider rehabilitation if less than
XX% of the parking lot area shows moderate or high distress.
Whether the parking lot is reconstructed or rehabilitated, care should be taken to ensure that the
pavement has enough slope to maintain positive drainage and prevent “bird baths” and other
areas of standing water. Asphalt pavement has a small percentage of voids which are necessary
to allow seasonal expansion and contraction. Water that doesn’t drain quickly can trickle into
these voids causing freeze-thaw damage to the pavement and eventually weakening the base
course and compacted soil beneath the pavement.
Drainage problems are frequently a major cause of parking area pavement failures. This is
especially the case with irrigation sprinkler systems located in parking lots and medians. It is
critical to keep water away from the subgrade soil. If the subgrade becomes saturated, it will lose
strength and stability, making the overlying pavement structure susceptible to breakup under
imposed loads. Drainage provisions for islands and other vegetated areas should be verified (or
installed, if not present) as part of every parking lot reconstruction or rehabilitation.
Maintenance Budget:
The attached table shows typical costs (in 2013 dollars) for common maintenance treatments.
Treatment
Cost
Service Life
Crack fill
Seal Coat
Slurry seal
Thin Overlay
XX
XX
XX
XX
Annual
5 years
10 years
20 years
Cost Per Year of
Service Life
XX
XX
XX
XX
The following 50-year life cycle cost analysis shows how aggressive maintenance can save
money in the long run.