On the one hand, in warm and dry weather, road construction works are better performed than in rainy and wet weather, but on the other, heat currently forces a number of adjustments to be made, both in the planning of working time and in the selection of works to be done.
Anna Kononova, representative of “Latvian State Roads”, said that the builders are reorganizing the work schedule and asphalt work, as well as the handling of road surfaces, either in the early hours of the morning or very late in the evening. In days, the air temperature is so high that the mass of the asphalt cannot cool to such temperatures as to allow traffic to take place along the road.
“Drivers are called upon to be patient and not be surprised if there are any sections where the asphalt is there and seemingly there are no more obstacles, but the traffic is not allowed. This is due to the fact that the asphalt has not yet cooled, and traffic on the uncooled asphalt must not be allowed, because it is soft and will immediately sink, and all work will be in vain, it will have to be redone. Also, a technology called “surface processing” that puts bitumen emulsions and splinters on the surface of the road, it is currently too hot to do it. These jobs are mostly done by builders in the early morning or late evening hours, or are delayed for another time,” Kononova said.