Making Asphalt in Water: Yerevan

As a result of the fierce climatic conditions during the recent 1-2 months, a large number of potholes have appeared in the streets of Yerevan, which has naturally caused inconveniences for the residents of the capital.

Recently the Municipality has started asphalting of the holes, which, however, raises a number of questions.

Building codes (the so called SNIP) establish a number of related regulations, including the following:

– Fuel oil layer should be applied under the asphalt in order to ensure the viscosity,

– The asphalt must not be laid in temperatures below +15 Celsius,

– The asphalt must not even be laid on wet surface since its component part bitumen dissolves and loses its properties in water.

However, the asphalt laying specialists violate all these rules and often lay the asphalt in a pothole full of water, and, naturally, without fuel oil, guided  by the order of the Yerevan Municipality and with the taxpayers’ money.

In the near future, we will try to find out how much money has been spent from the community budget in order to lay asphalt in water.

At this moment, it is enough to state that the asphalt laid in that way may even be destroyed within one night since the water remaining under it will turn into ice and destroy the asphalt from under.