Cycling in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

The depth of the freezing is clearly different but we do get frost on the ground some days.

But I’d never heard that it is about frost heaving in winter. Like, that’s usually something that affects subsurface structures mostly. The leaving of asphalt I’ve always been told was about letting the first layer settle and compress under loads before doing the final lift.

Frost on the pavement is not a problem.

Frozen ground absolutely can cause unevenness in the pavement. Not terrible in SW Ontario, but still there, depending on the winter and the location. Not paving the final coat until the following summer is a very logical thing to reduce the risk of frost damage to new pavement.

The point is though, that frost on pavement can only occur when some portion of the ground is frozen. Frost cannot occur on surfaces that are above 0C.

As for the rest, I know this is what engineers say, but given how much of our road engineering is known to be...at best, unjustified by data...I really wonder how important this really is.