1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to repairing of deteriorated pavement and other road courses. Applicant designates one with ordinary skill in the art to be a civil or highway engineer.
2. Description of Related Art
The wear course of road surfaces deteriorates from exposure to traffic and weather, necessitating repairs of cracks or holes. Such problems are preferably addressed in the early stages of deterioration.
Before my invention, it was customary to send out crews of men that would fill in holes or cracks with an asphalt aggregate mix, also known in the art as "hot mix," and then compact the hot mix. This required considerable equipment to maintain the hot mix in a desired condition, and to compact the patch, as well as shovels, spreaders, and other tools. Such repairs also took considerable time. The quality of the repair varied widely according to differences in workers, climate, and times of day.
Before this application was filed, a search was made in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. That search developed the following patents:
______________________________________ NAGEL 292,037 WALKER 794,206 CASLER 1,187,259 ABERNATHY 2,413,901 FAIR 2,701,219 ALPS 2,880,116 VASILOFF 3,557,671 LEVY 3,608,444 HURST 3,741,856 HURST 3,900,102 CORRIGAN 4,080,228 MARZUCCHI 4,175,978 UFFNER 4,362,586 UFFNER 4,451,171 UFFNER 4,545,699 ______________________________________
Geotextile fabrics, such as polypropylene, are well known in the highway engineering art as a useful reinforcing base for asphalt aggregate mix or hot mix used to repair deteriorated road surfaces. The fabric helps to prevent reflective cracking, or transmission of cracks in the underlying pavement to the fresh layer of asphalt aggregate mix. Geotextile fabric also permits the use of thinner layers of asphalt aggregate mix. Such fabric is used with the standard repair method described above by placing the fabric over the deteriorated portion of wear course, and the asphalt aggregate is compacted onto the fabric at the site.