When you venture from the urban areas of this country you quite often also leave behind the readily available hot-mix asphalt supply. How often are you calculating the time and distance from the nearest hot asphalt supplier to your latest paving project? What if it rains on the day you have your crews and equipment ready? What are your risks? The crew on Bowen Island know the risks and have found their own rewarding solution.

Welcome to idyllic Bowen Island, British Columbia. Located in Howe Sound, Bowen Island is a twenty minute ferry ride from West Vancouver’s shoreline. A three nautical mile journey that removes you from the urban life of Greater Vancouver and drops you into a spot where everyone knows your name and the 3,500 permanent residents rarely find it necessary to lock their doors.

The road network on Bowen Island consists of 87 kilometres of asphalt and chip seal roads. The nearest asphalt plant is thirty minutes from the mainland ferry terminal making it a minimum one hour drive if you time the ferry schedule perfectly.

EZ Street Asphalt has become the prime ingredient in the fight to keep the Island’s roadways safe, trafficable, and to avoid expensive reconstruction. One small stretch at a time, the maintenance crew of three guys are repairing and patching their roads with EZ Street Asphalt. The municipality maintains a 30mt stockpile on the island, which enables them to access EZ Street at their convenience with no time issues or limitations with product.

A Bowen Island road partially paved with EZ Street to repair deterioration.

With a small tax base, a municipality like Bowen Island needs to use their resources as cost effectively as possible. The crew of Kevin, Mark and Grant have been using EZ Street for a number of years and have found the bio-fuel mix made in Vancouver to be the perfect fit for their needs.

The repairs on the Island are performed by loading bulk EZ Street into the back of a work truck and then placing it by hand using shovels and rakes. Compaction is with a double drum walk behind roller.

Bowen Island road above with 50% EZ Street asphalt repair (left hand side).

Crew members, Mark and Grant repairing the other 50% with bulk EZ Street from their stockpile. Weather conditions during application were light rain and 15C. Mark put it in perspective, “This sh_ _ works everywhere! Thanks for making my job easier.”

Whether the issues are on a steep sloping downgrade, a corner, chip seal or asphalt, the crew has mastered making the repairs using EZ Street Asphalt.

EZ Street repair on a steep sloping chip seal road (>10 deg).

With a lot of hard work and a product designed for use when regular hot-mix is either unavailable or not feasible, Bowen Island has the answer - EZ Street Asphalt.

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