The Phoenix Street Transportation Department has applied the innovative cool pavement seal coat to 100 miles of city streets. Mayor Kate Gallego, and Vice Mayor and District 7 Councilwoman Yassamin Ansari joined with community members, media and city staff to celebrate the milestone on Tuesday in Estrella.
The most recent neighborhood streets to receive the cool seal coating are located in the area bordered by Lower Buckeye Road and Durango Street between 83rd and 79th avenues. That area accounts for approximately five miles of local roadway and crews are working on the application process this week.
Phoenix’s Cool Pavement Program started in 2020. During the last four years, the cool seal coating has been applied to the streets in dozens of neighborhoods citywide and the parking lot of Esteban Park.
Street Transportation Department staff and Arizona State University researchers have partnered to analyze the impact cool pavement has on the urban heat island effect. Testing has proven a 10.5 to 12 degree Fahrenheit surface temperature difference in the midday and afternoon hours, and that surface temperatures at sunrise averaged 2.4 degrees lower.
Additionally, the durability of the coating, which acts as sunscreen for the pavement, is being studied to learn if it will lengthen the maintenance life of the pavement surface. Testing to date shows the core temperature of the asphalt is lower, which could lead to a long-term cost efficiency for pavement maintenance.
Also celebrated on Tuesday was that the cool pavement seal coat is produced locally by manufacturer GuardTop, which in 2017 opened a 120,000-square-foot production facility near downtown Phoenix. Since 2022, the company has exclusively produced the cool pavement material at that facility, which is its Sustainability Hub. In addition to supplying the product to the City of Phoenix, it is shipped to locations domestically and internationally, including Australia, Canada, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
The cool pavement coating is a water-based, non-toxic, recyclable product that bonds to asphalt.
Learn more about Phoenix’s Cool Pavement Program here.
