PERFORMING SEALS – FACTORS AFFECTING SUSTAINABLE SPRAYED SEALING PRACTICE

Sprayed seals are the predominant pavement surfacing across the Australian road network, covering over 80 % of the all-weather roads. Typically, a simple sprayed seal may vary in life from 7 to 15 years. However, considerably different lifetimes may eventuate depending on a range of causes, including the choice of treatment, quality of materials and operational aspects of construction, amongst other influencing factors. From a sustainability and budgetary viewpoint, a difference in age of several years may have a significant impact on the consumption of scarce high quality sealing aggregate and bituminous binder and on the whole-of-life greenhouse gas emissions attributable to the seal. This paper will discuss the important factors affecting the lifetime of a sprayed seal and their impact on sustainability and asset management budgets from a qualitative viewpoint