Asphalt Paving in Montgomery, AL

Asphalt paving in Montgomery has to survive heat more than cold. The city averages 86 days a year above 90 degrees and nearly four above 100, while it sees only about three nights a year below 20 degrees and less than half an inch of snow. Rain is the other constant: about 51 inches spread over more than 100 days, with February, March and July the wettest months. Asphalt softens in that heat and the ground under it gets soaked. A driveway or parking lot that lasts here has enough thickness to resist rutting and a base that stays firm when it is wet.

Black Belt clay

Montgomery sits on the Gulf Coastal Plain along the Alabama River, at the edge of the Black Belt, the band of dark, clay-rich prairie soil that runs across central Alabama. The USDA describes Black Belt clays such as the Vaiden series as very fine smectitic clay over chalk, very slowly permeable and saturated within a foot or two of the surface in winter and spring. Smectite clays swell when they take on water and shrink as they dry, which heaves and cracks pavement that sits on a thin base. Not every lot has those soils, but many do, especially south and west of the city.

How we build for it

• Strip topsoil and dig out soft or wet clay in the driveway path
• Place compacted crushed stone, commonly 6 to 8 inches under a home driveway and more under truck traffic
• Compact asphalt to the thickness in your quote, typically 2 to 3 inches residential and 4 or more commercial
• Grade so water runs off the surface and away from the base
• Support the edges so they do not crumble into the yard

Get a Free Estimate

Heat and timing

Hot-mix asphalt has to be compacted while it is still workable. In Montgomery summers, that is easy in the morning and harder in the late afternoon, when new asphalt is also most easily marked by tires. We start early, keep traffic off until the surface cools, and give you clear instructions: no turning the wheel in place, no kickstands or jack stands without a board, and varied parking for the first season.

Old neighborhoods and new suburbs

Montgomery was incorporated in 1819 and has been Alabama's capital since 1846. Its older districts, such as the Garden District and Cloverdale, have narrow drives and mature trees. Around it, places like Pike Road, Prattville and Millbrook have grown fast, with new subdivisions on freshly graded clay. Each needs a different approach, and the town pages explain what we see in each.

Repair, reseal or rebuild?

Not every tired driveway needs replacing. If the surface is gray and has a few cracks but stays firm underfoot, crack filling and a seal coat can buy years. If it has a few potholes on an otherwise sound base, saw-cut patches fix them. When cracks connect into a web, ruts hold water and the edges are breaking up, the base has failed, and a rebuild is the better value. We explain which category your pavement is in at the estimate.

Permits

Work that reaches the street, curb or sidewalk, or connects to a state highway, may need approval from the city, the county or the Alabama Department of Transportation. We confirm what applies to your address before scheduling.

Our home base is Montgomery, and we work across the River Region: Prattville, Millbrook, Wetumpka, Pike Road, Elmore, Coosada, Deatsville, Eclectic, Tallassee and Autaugaville to the north and west; Hope Hull, Hayneville, Lowndesboro and Fort Deposit to the south; Shorter, Tuskegee, Union Springs, Auburn and Opelika to the east; and Selma, Troy and Clanton farther out. Soil changes from Black Belt clay in the south and west to sandier and rockier ground near the Fall Line around Wetumpka, Tallassee and Auburn. The town pages cover the details.