The Santa Maria Event Center was dissatisfied with its entrance roads, which had become vulnerable to inclement weather and impeded traffic. The center reached out to Midwest, which was able to transform the roads into robust, pavement-like surfaces with GreenPave®.
The unpaved entrance roads at the Santa Maria Event Center (SMEC) shuttle between 5,000 and 8,000 vehicles to and from the arena every day during major events, and they were starting to show the effects of such heavy traffic. After years of reliable use, the three roads, two of which are directly off a freeway ramp, were beginning to produce massive dust clouds and require increasingly expensive maintenance.
In search of an alternative to traditional paving methods, which can be prohibitively expensive, the SMEC contacted Midwest Industrial Supply, Inc. for assistance. After evaluating the center’s unique soil situation and financial needs, Midwest professionals determined that their GreenPave natural paving method would prove the most cost-effective and long-lasting solution.
A Unique Road Problem
The SMEC’s long entrance roads presented a challenge; their composition is greatly varied, and includes surfaces of natural soils, sugar sand, silt, and mixed aggregate, with concentration and composition varying across the roadways. Compounding the problem was the aging underlying road structure. Trucks would often become stuck in soft spots, and roads would wash out in inclement weather.
Midwest was tasked with blending these different soils evenly to create a smooth, durable road surface, one that wouldn’t require excessive maintenance efforts down the road. Our GreenPave natural paving method was an ideal candidate to address these constraints, as it adapts readily to any number of soil types and gets harder and more durable with heavy use.
For the SMEC, this dramatically reduces long-term maintenance costs, and because the method has no negative impact on surrounding ecology, they could be assured that the community would get behind the project.
Blending a Solution
GreenPave is an alternative to traditional asphalt paving, and uses synthetic binders to blend and stabilize natural soils in a road surface that’s as resilient as pavement. Because it uses native soils, the system also eliminates the cost of bringing in new aggregate. For the SMEC, Midwest professionals were able to create a different, ideal mixture of soils and products for each section of the road according to its soil composition. After applying palliative and, in some areas, fibers, the result was a single roadway with consistent strength and stability. Compared with traditional paving, the application of GreenPave is less cost-prohibitive, and because it requires only shallow digging, the process takes mere days.
Eighteen months following application, the entrance roads are performing as well as they did on day one. GreenPave not only eliminated the SMEC’s dust and maintenance problems, but has also produced pristine roadways that improve the experience of thousands of visitors. In fact, as a token of gratitude, the SMEC recently presented Midwest with an award at one of their rodeo events. For the center and its charitable donors, the dramatic reduction in long-term road costs is no small benefit.
