Paving Contractors in Cheyenne, WY

Paving contractors in Cheyenne work on a short clock. The city sits at 6,086 feet, and its average freezing window runs from about September 29 to May 14, leaving a growing season of roughly 106 days. That is the window for hot-mix asphalt, which needs warm ground to compact properly. Inside that window, the job is to build pavement that can survive the other eight months: about 60 inches of snow a year that peaks in March and April, highs that stay below freezing on about 35 days, and chinook afternoons above 50 degrees on about twenty winter days that melt snow straight into every crack.

Where Cheyenne pavement fails

Most asphalt failures here trace back to water. Snowmelt runs into a crack, freezes overnight, expands and widens the crack. In spring, saturated base softens, and wheels push the pavement down into it. The result is alligator cracking, potholes and edges that break off. The defenses are a compacted, well-drained base, a surface that sheds water, and cracks sealed before the snow flies. On each estimate we check all three.

The section we build

HomeGuide's cost guide gives a typical residential driveway as 2 to 3 inches of compacted asphalt over 6 to 8 inches of compacted gravel, rising to 3 to 4 inches over 8 to 10 inches for heavier vehicles, and 4 inches or more for commercial lots. We size the section to what drives on it and write both numbers into the estimate. Where we find soft subgrade, we dig it out and replace it with compacted base before paving.

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Asphalt or concrete in Cheyenne?

Half the local Facebook threads about driveways are about concrete. HomeGuide puts asphalt at roughly $5 to $12 or more per square foot with a 15 to 30 year life, and concrete at $6 to $15 with 30 to 40 years. Asphalt goes in faster, is ready to drive on sooner, flexes a little with frost, and is easy to patch. Concrete lasts longer but costs more and is harder to repair invisibly. For many Cheyenne homes, asphalt makes sense; we will tell you if your situation is different.

Wind and drifting snow

Open ground and steady wind move snow onto driveways and lots and pile it against edges. When those drifts melt, the water soaks the soil next to the pavement, then freezes. Supported, compacted edges and a surface that drains away from drift-prone sides make a real difference. On commercial lots, we look at where plows stack snow and steer meltwater toward drains.

Season and scheduling

Because the season is short, we book paving for late spring through early fall and avoid cold, wet ground. Sealcoating needs dry pavement and temperatures roughly between 50 and 95 degrees, per HomeGuide, and new asphalt should cure 3 to 6 months before its first seal. Crack sealing is best done in late summer, before the late-September freeze.

What a driveway project includes

• Measuring and checking drainage, slope and the approach
• Removing old asphalt, concrete or gravel
• Digging out soft subgrade and rebuilding with compacted base
• Grading so water leaves the pavement
• Placing and rolling hot-mix to the quoted thickness
• Finishing edges and joints at the garage and street
• Written instructions for curing and first sealcoat

We work in Cheyenne and the unincorporated neighborhoods around it, including Ranchettes, South Greeley and Fox Farm-College, plus Laramie County towns such as Pine Bluffs, Burns, Albin, Carpenter and Hillsdale. We also take projects in Laramie, Wheatland, Chugwater, Guernsey and Torrington, in northern Colorado at Wellington, Fort Collins, Nunn and Carr, and in western Nebraska at Kimball and Sidney. These places sit in three states and several counties, and each one handles approaches and right-of-way differently, so we check the current rules for your address before planning work at the street. Elevation, snowfall and soil vary too: Laramie at 7,165 feet has a much shorter season than Torrington at 4,104. The town pages cover the local details.