Asphalt Paving in Allentown, PA

Asphalt paving in Allentown covers more variety than most cities its size. Only Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are bigger: Allentown counted 125,845 people in 2020, on roughly 17.6 square miles. Within those limits are rowhouse blocks and Victorians downtown, shady West End streets largely built between the 1920s and 1940s, and postwar singles and twins across the East and South Sides. Each of those neighborhoods brings its own paving problems.

Center City and the Wards: alley access

Behind many rowhouses and twins runs an alley, and the parking pad or garage apron off that alley is often the only off-street parking a household has. These pads tend to be small, shaded and boxed in by fences, garages and neighbors' pads, which means hand work and small equipment. Water from the alley often runs straight onto them. We pave the pad with enough pitch to send water back out or to a drain, and finish the joint at the garage so snowmelt does not run inside.

The West End: older driveways, mature trees

Driveways built alongside 1920s-1940s homes have often been patched and overlaid several times. By now, the layers can be thick, the edges high and the garage threshold buried. Big street trees add root heave. Here we often mill or remove the old layers rather than stacking another one on top, and we cut roots only as far as is safe for the tree.

East Side and South Side: postwar homes

Single and twin homes from the 1940s through the 1960s usually have a driveway beside the house and a concrete curb and sidewalk at the street. Many of these driveways are on their second or third surface. The common jobs are full replacement with new base, widening for a second car, and edge rebuilding where the driveway meets the lawn.

City rules for streets, sidewalks and alleys

Allentown's Chapter 545 prohibits opening the surface of any city street or alley without a permit. Applications go to the Department of Public Works at least three working days in advance, with a deposit and a certificate of insurance carrying $300,000 per person and per accident. Curb and sidewalk replacement is covered by a separate curb and sidewalk permit. The permit is void if the work does not begin within 60 days, and the code sets fines of up to $1,000 per offense, with each day counted separately. When a project reaches any of those areas, we sort out the permit path before the job goes on the calendar.

Weather and ground

The airport averages 33.1 inches of snow per season, with February the snowiest month, and Allentown has recorded -15 degrees (January 1994). Jordan Creek and Little Lehigh Creek meet inside the city, and the region sits on limestone; the 1993 sinkhole that condemned the Corporate Center on North 7th Street is a local reminder of why water should be directed off pavement rather than into the ground at one spot. Call (610) 620-2512 or

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