LOS ANGELES (July 1, 2010) – As one of his first major initiatives, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced a plan to turn the city into the greenest in the country. The mayor’s bold proposal came on the heels of another ambitious project – an initiative that to date has resulted in more than 1 million repaired potholes on roads throughout the city.
It’s no surprise that Los Angeles, a city known for its crowded roads, has its share of potholes to fix on its network of roads that totals 6,500 miles. According to the most recent Census, roughly 1.2 million of the city’s 1.5 million workers ages 16 or older – or 80 percent – rely on an automobile. The mayor’s initiatives left the city looking for a material to use for patching potholes while concurrently meeting its green initiatives.
The City of Angels is among the first in the country to use the new QUIKRETE® Asphalt Cold Patch to repair potholes. The QUIKRETE® Companies, which is headquartered in Atlanta, first commercialized Asphalt Cold Patch in southern California.
This patching material is composed of 90 percent graded recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) that is rejuvenated with a special binding agent. Using this recycled material diverts material from the waste stream and preserves virgin aggregate resources. Both reductions support energy efficiency and environmental improvement.
QUIKRETE® Asphalt Cold Patch is low VOC and low odor. It contains less than 0.5 percent of volatile material as defined by the South Coast Air Quality Management District rule 1108.
“We have worked with the city of Los Angeles for years, but with the mayor’s new environmental push, we’ve started working with the city in a new capacity,” said Steve Witowich, QUIKRETE® sales representative.
“As the city turns green, the needs of the road crews are the same, and when a pothole is discovered, it still has to be patched with a permanent repair,” Witowich added. “By using a green alternative, the city is able to keep the environment in mind while making roads easier to travel for motorists.”
Villaraigosa’s latest plan – titled “GREEN LA – An Action Plan to Lead the Nation in Fighting Global Warming” – includes a number of components, including investing in renewable energy, mandating green building standards and holding water use steady.
By 2035, Villaraigosa wants the city’s carbon emissions to be 35 percent lower than they were in 1990. While those are the highly-visible elements, “GREEN LA” also encourages the use of recycled materials such as QUIKRETE® Asphalt Cold Patch.
“As city leaders, we have a responsibility to confront the gathering climate crisis,” Villaraigosa said in a news release announcing his green plan. “Los Angeles emits one-fifth of 1 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping gas that is the leading cause of climate change. Although one-fifth of 1 percent may not sound like much, it is roughly equal to the carbon dioxide emissions of the entire country of Sweden. I believe it’s time to take bold action to reduce our contribution to global climate change.”
While selecting “green” alternatives is important, this doesn’t negate the need for a quality material.
“For a street repair crew, time is of the essence, and any product that a crew uses – green or not – must be easy to use so they can cover as much ground in a day as possible,” Witowich said. “While this green product may be new, it’s engineered to offer similar setting properties and strength characteristics as our standard blacktop and asphalt repair using recycled materials, and it must not be a noticeable change for the thousands of motorists who will drive over the patched pothole every day.”
QUIKRETE® Asphalt Cold Patch is designed to permanently repair potholes found in roadways and cracks over 1-inch. Requiring no heating or mixing, the patching material provides an immediate solution as the cold patch bonds with the surrounding asphalt. Once leveled and compacted using a tamper, the repaired surface can be driven on immediately.
The patching material is available in 50-pound bags and will yield approximately .32 cubic feet when properly compacted – covering an area of 3.8 feet with 1-inch of thickness.
Before announcing “GREEN LA,” Villaraigosa launched Operation Pothole, touted as “the nation’s single largest pothole repair effort.” In October 2008, the mayor announced that the city’s street department filled 1 million potholes. At that time, officials touted how the program has made the city’s streets both safer and smoother, but noted that the process of improving the city’s streets was a long-term project.
In addition to the city of Los Angeles, the city of Fullerton, Calif., is also using QUIKRETE® Asphalt Cold Patch.
The QUIKRETE® Companies
The QUIKRETE® Companies is the largest manufacturer of packaged concrete and cement mixes in the United States and Canada, and an innovative leader in the commercial building and home improvement industries. QUIKRETE® products are manufactured in more than 90 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and South America, allowing for unsurpassed distribution and product depth. The QUIKRETE® Technical Center ensures that professionals and consumers alike are provided with the most innovative and highest quality products available on the market. For additional information on The QUIKRETE® Companies or its products, please visit www.quikrete.com or call (800) 282-5828.
