“Like in a Michelin restaurant”: Omsk road workers were caught saving bitumen again?

The mayor’s office insists on compliance with regulations. But Omsk residents just laugh. (PHOTO)

Omsk residents are asking road workers again: how much bitumen should be poured under a new layer of asphalt during repairs?

Let us recall that previously representatives of these services already had to justify workers suspected of “saving” the emulsion, which is essential for laying the coating, when repairing the Krasnoyarsk Highway. Then the answer was given that it was poured right before the hot asphalt was poured. And at that moment, when the picky city dweller began to persistently take a closer look, bending down under the very bottom of the special equipment and studying the newly poured mound of mixture, then, they say, the car was standing at all. Because the asphalt mixture has run out. So they didn’t pour the bitumen in vain, otherwise it would still harden…

But here’s the problem: the same question arose in another place, and on another road! In the Central District.

“According to technology, is this how much bitumen should be present during repairs before laying asphalt?
Or are they overspending in vain? (This is clearly sarcasm on the part of the author of the post)
St. Zavertyaeva waited in Omsk for recovery. But how long will such repairs last?” writes an Omsk resident in the Omsk VK group.

The photo shows that the gaps between the strips of applied bitumen are too large, in the opinion of the townspeople.

But the adhesion strength of the new asphalt to its “substrate”, that is, to the bottom layer, depends on how well the bottom layer is impregnated with bitumen emulsion.

And vice versa: in places where there is too little or none at all, holes and potholes will inevitably form.

“There is very little bitumen. Essentially, what is and what is not. The asphalt here will last no longer than two to three months,” explains Alexander B.

The Omsk mayor’s office responded to this: the preparatory work before laying the new asphalt was fully carried out. They say, as expected, the places where the old coating came into contact with the new were treated.

And the volume of bitumen used depends on the area of the road that is damaged, the city administration emphasized.

True, city hall employees do not provide the standards themselves. So this answer seems somewhat unconvincing.

And this caught the eye of Omsk residents who were at least somewhat familiar with the road business.

“At least you get to the heart of the matter. It was the amount of bitumen solution used, not the location where it was used.
In your opinion, only the joints on the sides should be treated with bitumen. And inside the pit itself, bitumen is not used.
Is the old asphalt not in contact with the new one?
This pit had to be treated completely with bitumen. And look black. But how do you know? It’s not visible on the papers.
Billions of liters probably appear there,” notes Sergei R.

Meanwhile, the townspeople have already begun to openly tease the city administration.

“The Autobots use proven technology from the 19th century. You should have seen how elegantly they covered the cracks on the Zhukovsky Bridge with sand. And then they poured hot bitumen. What a sight for sore eyes!” exclaims Dmitry, for example.

The city administration continued to repeat its position.

“Repairs are carried out in compliance with technology,” the mayor’s office responded.

But it was felt that people who were not familiar with the matter were answering. It was so helpless. After all, even technological standards were not cited as evidence.

We weren’t lazy. And we found the necessary data by asking specialists.

So, experienced craftsmen working in one of the capital’s companies say: building or repairing a road involves carefully pouring bitumen emulsion.

This product tightly binds the road surface layers, whatever their thickness. Therefore, it is often used for priming the road surface, as well as the base.

Taking into account the type of coating, the following norms for filling bitumen emulsion per square meter have been established:

crushed stone coating – 0.8 l;
asphalt crumbs – 0.8 l;
asphalt – 0.4 l;
concrete – 0.8 l.

Therefore, the consumption rate should be from 0.4 l to 0.8 l per square meter of area.

If concrete and bulk materials, asphalt chips and crushed stone are primed, you need to double the bitumen consumption.

But here we are talking about the spilling of bitumen on the old, lower layer of the road. This means that you can take a smaller value of bitumen emulsion.

But it still has to be not less than 0.4 liters per square meter.

For reliability, we decided to double-check the data and turned to another source.

According to the evidence of Ural experts, in the construction of asphalt roads during the priming of each layer of the structure, there are different rates of bitumen consumption.

Depending on the filling method used for impregnation, the consumption is:

about 1 liter for each square meter of layer when arranging the base;
and from 1.5 to 2 liters in case of covering.

When the lower layers are primed – 0.3-0.4 liters per 1 square meter.

When priming a coating milled for further installation – from 0.3 to 0.5 liters per 1 square meter.

For a cement concrete base – from 0.5 to 0.8 liters per 1 square meter.

For crushed stone – from 0.5 to 0.9 liters per 1 square meter.

In our case, obviously, the coating is milled for further installation. That is, on average, it’s still the same 0.4 liters per “square”.

Now let’s look again at the image of the road being repaired on the street. Zavertyaeva in Omsk. Does this sound like the required density of bitumen application?

“It’s like spreading sauce on a plate in a Michelin-starred restaurant,” Alexander Kh. couldn’t resist the analogy.

“The administration of the city of Omsk, this is a violation of technology,” adds Andrey V.

Now let’s remember how roads were repaired in other places in Omsk.

“I remember when on the street. chemists were rolling out asphalt. There was bitumen every 10 cm throughout the entire road area. And there was no damage there.
It seems that they are rubbing some kind of bullshit into us…”

Let me end this post with this picture. Where you can see how it really should be. Photos from our experts.