Asphalt Paving Contractor in Gallatin, TN

Gallatin's newer subdivisions are reaching sealcoating age

The Census counts about 21,000 homes in Gallatin, and roughly one in three was built between 2010 and 2019. Another 7 percent went up in 2020 or later. Fewer than three in ten date from before 1980. That is a town full of driveways paved within a few years of each other.

Hot mix asphalt needs its first sealcoat once it has cured, then a fresh coat every few years after that. That clock is running on hundreds of driveways at once. Kennesaw Farms and Hunt Club along Nashville Pike are in that group. So are Fairvue Plantation and Foxland Harbor near the lake.

Cambridge Farms and Carellton have their share too. Sealcoating in Gallatin keeps water and sun out of the surface while the asphalt is still sound. Once cracks have opened, crack sealing comes first and the sealer goes over it.

The growth is not done. The city's own development list shows the next wave under construction. Twin Eagles Phase 15 and The Paddock at Kennesaw Farms are on it. So are Nexus Tennessee and The Banks off Lock 4 Road.

Streets off Cages Bend Road and Douglas Bend Road are filling in too. New driveways in those subdivisions will need the same care a few summers from now.

What sits under a Gallatin driveway: clay over limestone

The NRCS soil survey maps most of Gallatin's uplands as Harpeth and Mimosa silt loams. Both drain well at the surface, but both carry a clay subsoil that holds water after a wet week. On the slopes, the Mimosa units are mapped as eroded and rocky. The Barfield units there put limestone bedrock close to the surface.

Along the creeks and in the low ground, the map adds Arrington and Egam silt loams. Those are floodplain soils that flood now and then. Each of those soils asks something different of a driveway base.

A clay subsoil wants a thick, well compacted crushed stone base and a surface pitched to shed water. Shallow rock carries a driveway well, and the base sits on top of it rather than being cut into it. Floodplain ground stays soft after rain, so the base gets built up and dried out before asphalt goes down.

Winters here swing above and below freezing, often in the same week. Water that gets into a crack freezes and expands, and the clay underneath heaves with it. That is how a small crack becomes a pothole by March. Asphalt repair in Gallatin starts with milling out the failed spot with our skid steer attachments. Then hot mix goes in and gets compacted before the base washes out.

Do you need a permit to pave a driveway in Gallatin?

The City of Gallatin Building Codes Department issues building permits from its office on West Main Street. Its list of permit projects covers decks, garages, sheds, pools and additions, and driveways are not on it. The page tells you to ask the department when your project is not listed. That is the right call before a new driveway.

The Engineering Division is the office that matters for the street side. It takes driveway permits, right-of-way permits and land disturbance permits online, and it administers the city's Stormwater Ordinance. Land disturbance permits cover sites that disturb an acre or more, or smaller pieces of a larger development. A new entrance or a widened apron that touches a city street goes through that office. Ask before the work starts, and we build to what the permit says.

Nashville Pike, Hartsville Pike, Vietnam Veterans Boulevard and SR 109 are TDOT-maintained routes, so an entrance there brings TDOT in. Milling a full-depth patch or cutting a new edge counts as digging under Tennessee's one-call law. Tennessee 811 needs at least three working days' notice before that work starts. The paint and flags stay down until the job is done.

Parking lot paving and striping along Nashville Pike and SR 109

Gallatin's retail runs along Nashville Pike, with newer centers going in around Big Station Camp Boulevard and Vietnam Veterans Boulevard. Industrial sites line Airport Road and SR 109, with more off Long Hollow Pike. Every one of those lots takes delivery trucks and the swing from summer heat to winter freeze. The surface shows it within a few years.

Parking lot striping is where a lot shows its age first. Faded lines and worn arrows confuse drivers, and a missing accessible-space marking draws complaints. The ADA Standards for Accessible Design spell out how many accessible spaces a lot needs and how they are marked. We stripe to the layout your plan calls for and flag anything that looks short.

For a full lot replacement, parking lot paving usually starts with milling the old surface. We mill small sections and repair areas with our own skid steer attachments. For a whole lot we bring in a full-size milling machine. Sealcoating and restriping on a regular cycle keeps a lot out of the replacement conversation far longer.