INDIANAPOLIS—The Indianapolis Department of Public Works (Indy DPW) recently demonstrated two new infrared asphalt heaters to be seen repairing streets across Indy this spring. The P200 asphalt heaters, manufactured by Heat Design Equipment, Inc. raise pavement surface temperatures so asphalt can be easily worked and re-compacted to repair crumbling road segments.
Along with strip-patching roadways, the infrared heaters will be used as a more substantive maintenance measure to bridge the gap between traditional pothole patching and capital street reconstruction projects. Strip-patching locations that crews are addressing this week include segments of 21st Street, Shadeland Avenue, Emerson Avenue and Allisonville Road.
Infrared asphalt heaters work best in locations not with a single deep pothole or even several potholes, but along road segments where multiple layers of previous patching are present. Optimal use with the heater is not to fill various deep potholes, but to make these multi-layered streets pliable, such that various levels of asphalt can be raked up, re-worked, and tamped back down into one smooth and consistent surface.
When pavement is dry, each infrared heater will be able to raise full sections of deteriorated asphalt to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing crews to rake over and smooth out cracks and holes before workers tamp down the newly restored street surface. At 3 feet wide, the infrared heater is set on casters so it can be pulled behind a truck, super-heating long segments of pocked pavement to be re-compacted and smoothed.
