HIGH-PROFILE MAINTENANCE

High-profile maintenance projects can be rewarding in terms of corporate or city pride and recognition, but often involve restrictive conditions and reputation risk. This article details two high-profile projects that were successful because of sound planning, a teamwork approach to problem-solving and devoted crews. A large-scale project at Sea World in Orlando, Florida, involved improving the look of the parking lot, protecting the pavement in a cost-effective manner, redesigning the parking lot to handle visitor growth, and completing all the work without shutting down the park, which is open 365 days a year. A sealcoat was spray-applied to the pavement to minimize lot closure and maximize efficiency. Once the pavement was sealed, the parking lot was redesigned with angled parking for maximum flow. In another project, a large parking lot at the convention center in Longview, Texas, had extensive alligatored areas and raveling. The convention center was hosting two big events back-to-back in 12 days, so the pavement maintenance project had to be completed quickly. After several sealcoating and overlaying options were considered and rejected, it was decided to resurface the pavement using a crack sealer as a resurfacer. Since the parking lot had to be crack sealed anyway, this method promised to be both time-and cost-efficient. The city worked with the coating manufacturer to produce enough material to cover the parking lot and the project was completed in time.