Maine Commercial ContractingRoad Milling
Road Milling and pavement milling from Maine Commercial Contracting.
Road milling done right.
(207) 391-0540
Some of our most popular Services
Roadways
Hiking Paths
Bike Paths
Runways
What is road milling?
Road milling, also known as pavement milling or cold planing, removes a layer of a paved surface. The depth can be as shallow as the surface, or go as deep as the entire depth of the pavement. Full depth removes all asphalt. This is most commonly performed to level an uneven paved surface, or repair damage to a road or parking lot.
The machinery
Road milling is performed with a large specialized piece of construction equipment called a “milling machine” (also known as a cold planer). These machines turn a large drum. The drum digs up and grinds down the surface of the pavement. The drum is covered by a series of carbide cutters that cut away the pavement.
The cutters on the drum of a road miller direct the cut up asphalt to the center of the drum, where it moves to a conveyor belt. The belt then moves all of the waste to a container.
Water cools the drum to control the high heat from all of the friction in the process. The water also works as an effective and efficient dust control agent.
The purpose of road milling
The reasons for pavement milling are many. The main reason is to recycle the road surface, which is a popular eco-friendly solution to road maintenance. By recycling the road through pavement milling, minimal new resources need to be consumed in order to resurface the asphalt.
Smoothing uneven roadways is the primary purpose of pavement milling.
Beyond frost heaves and potholes from roads which were poorly created initially, there are tens of thousands of damages done to roads every year due to automobile accidents, fires, floods and more.
More popular today are rumble strips. Not just along roadsides to prevent tired driver accidents, precautionary intersection collision alerts through stop-ahead warning rumble strips is achieved through proper pavement milling.