Hot rubberized crack sealing in Sunnyside.

What the work involves

Cracks get cleaned out and filled with hot rubberized sealant that stays flexible through the freeze and thaw cycles. It is the highest-value pavement work at this elevation, because it stops water before water becomes ice inside your pavement.

Why it matters at this elevation

Hot rubberized sealant stays flexible, which is the whole reason it works here. Pavement expands in the afternoon sun and contracts on cold nights, so cracks open and close constantly. A rigid filler breaks its bond the first hard winter. Flexible sealant moves with the pavement and keeps holding.

Pavement in this range spends a long stretch under snow and then a long stretch cycling between melt and overnight refreeze. The refreeze does the damage. Water that ran into a crack at two in the afternoon is ice by nine at night, and ice takes up more room than the water did.

How the job runs

Sequence matters against the calendar too. Cracks sit at their narrowest in summer heat, so material placed then gets compressed rather than stretched when winter opens things back up. That is easier on the seal and it lasts longer for it.

Sunnyside pavement specifically

Lodging and restaurant lots along the highway, plus residential drives on the streets above. Commercial pavement here works hardest in summer, which is exactly when it has to be sealed, so phasing keeps businesses open.

Sunnyside sits on the West Shore a couple of miles south of Tahoe City along Highway 89, a strip of lakefront lodging, restaurants, and residential streets climbing away from the water. Heavy tree cover holds moisture on the surface long after the rest of the basin has dried, which slows curing and keeps organic debris on the asphalt.

Sealing cracks on this pavement is the cheapest work available and the work that buys the most time. It is also the easiest thing to keep putting off.

Sunnyside sits at roughly 6,240 feet, and the pavement around it behaves accordingly. More on the area on our Sunnyside service area page. We work the same corridor through Tahoe City, Homewood, Tahoe Park, Dollar Point, and the pavement guides go deeper on the physics if you want it.

Questions