Similarly, proper joint construction techniques have been well publicized, but these techniques must be executed or air and water will enter the pavement and start to cause deterioration. A final construction consideration for intersection paving is to keep traffic off of the mat until it has gained sufficient strength to resist early rutting. The hot mat is most susceptible to rutting. The principles that are involved in selecting the materials, designing the mix, and placing and compacting the mix are fairly straight-forward. The difficult part is in the execution.
Quality control is important.
Placing test strips to fine-tune the mixture and to tailor paving operations makes a difference. The commitment required to produce a well-performing intersection pavement is not completely painless. Intersection work is not high production paving. Many contractors do not like to slow down and optimize all the points in the process. The unit cost of paving an intersection for optimal performance is higher than for convention-al applications.