Tampa already knew what Perma-Patch® does to a manhole collar. Some of the ones Rowland placed in 2016 are still sealed. So when the city moved to full ring rebuilds in north Tampa, they used the version built for it. Perma-Patch Aqua™ goes down cold, gets hosed with water, and takes traffic as soon as it is compacted.
The problem: a ring rebuild is a lane closure with a cure time attached
A failed manhole collar is not a pothole. The frame has to come back to grade, which means saw-cutting the square out, resetting the frame, and rebuilding the ring around it. Do that the conventional way and you are waiting on concrete. On a four-lane road running past a K-8 school, nobody has a cure window, and the material adds up fast: twelve 60-pound bags per frame, staged, carried, and placed at every location on the list.
- Grade. The frame sits low and the collar spalls. The ring has to be rebuilt, not filled.
- Cure. A cure window holds the lane, and traffic control costs more than the material.
- Volume. 720 pounds of material per frame, times every frame on the list.
The fix, step by step
This is the sequence Rowland ran, start to finish, inside one lane closure.
1. Find the failure
The collar around the frame had broken down and the cracking had run out into the lane. This is the point where a surface patch buys a few months and the problem comes back.
2. Cut the square and set the mortar collar
Saw-cut a clean square, break out the failed ring, and trowel a mortar collar around the frame to bring it back to grade. The straight cut edge is what the Aqua bonds against. Two pails of mortar.
3. Pour the Aqua
Six 50-pound pails, cold, straight out of the bucket. No kettle, no tack coat, nothing heated. Aggregate is 3/8 inch and down, so it works into the annulus around the frame instead of bridging it.
4. Spread to the cut
Worked out by hand and by shovel to every edge of the square. Aqua bonds to asphalt, concrete, and steel, which on this repair means the old pavement, the new mortar collar, and the cast iron frame all get the same bond.
5. Rake to grade
Pulled level with the surrounding pavement and left slightly proud so it compacts down flush. At 1 inch, one 50-pound pail covers about 5 square feet, so the count is predictable before the crew leaves the yard.
6. Compact
Plate compactor across the square and around the frame until the surface tightens and goes flat. A hand tamp works, the plate is faster and leaves it flatter. Water can go on before or after this pass, either order sets the same.
7. Add the water
A hose over the whole square. A minimum of one pint per 50 pound pail, and in practice the crew is generous with it. This is the step that looks wrong to anyone who has spent a career keeping water out of a repair. Here the water is the trigger, and once it is in, the set starts.
8. Open it
Sweep the fines, pull the cones, put traffic on it. The patch carries load as soon as it is compacted, so the lane does not wait for the chemistry. Full cure takes 24 hours.
Try a pail on us. You will know by the end of the shift.
Request a samplePer frame, by the numbers
- Material per frame
- 12 bags at 60 lb
- 2 pails mortar, 6 pails Aqua
- Weight handled
- 720 lb
- roughly half
- What starts the set
- Cure time
- Water, 1 pint per pail minimum
- Lane held after placement
- Yes
- No, open on compaction
- Coverage per 50 lb pail
- n/a
- About 5 sq ft at 1 in
- Bonds to
- Varies by material
- Asphalt, concrete, and steel
- Solvents and VOCs
- Varies
- None
- Full cure
- Days
- 24 hours
Material figures from the PPAQ-50-P product data sheet. Pail counts and sequence recorded on site in north Tampa with Rowland, an AllClear company.
City inspectors have not seen a product hold up this well and set up this quickly.
On-site inspector, City of Tampa
The hose is step 7. Water is what sets it.
Every asphalt patch you have placed needed a dry hole, because water blocks the bond. Aqua is polymer modified and water activated, so the hose is not contamination, it is the trigger. That matters most on exactly this repair. The annulus around a sanitary frame is wet more often than it is dry, and a material that needs the hole dry loses days waiting on Florida. The full gradation and performance data are in the Aqua submittal package.
Questions crews ask on the first frame
How much water does it actually need?
A minimum of one pint per 50 pound pail. Crews on this job ran a hose over the whole square rather than measuring, which is fine. The failure mode is too little water, not too much.
Does the mortar collar have to cure before the Aqua goes on?
No. The Aqua goes on in the same shift and compaction locks the collar, the patch, and the frame together. Aqua bonds to concrete and steel as well as asphalt, which is why the three pieces behave as one.
How long before traffic?
As soon as it is compacted. Full cure is 24 hours, but the patch carries load before that, so the lane does not sit closed waiting on the chemistry.
How deep can it go?
Quarter inch minimum, and there is no practical maximum. Deeper repairs go in 3 inch lifts. A collar rebuild usually needs the depth, which is where the bagged alternative gets heavy.
How much do we order for a frame?
About 5 square feet per 50 pound pail at 1 inch. Measure the square, pick your depth, and the count comes out before anyone leaves the yard. Pails ship 36 to a pallet.
Any solvent or VOC exposure for the crew?
None. The material is free of solvents and volatile organic compounds. Normal skin protection still applies, it contains portland cement and will irritate skin on prolonged contact.
Does it work on concrete pavement too?
Yes. It bonds to asphalt and concrete, which is why it suits utility work where the cut runs through both.
Related
Specifying manhole collar work this season?
The Aqua submittal package carries the gradation, the water ratio, the cure data, and the placement detail your engineer will ask for. One PDF, no call required.
Get the Aqua submittal package