Phoenix has coated 100 miles of city streets with a cool pavement seal, and research shows it is doing the job, officials said.

The most recent neighborhood streets to receive the cool seal coating are 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 worked on the application process this week.

Phoenix street transportation department staff and Arizona State University researchers have partnered to analyze the impact cool pavement has on the urban heat island effect. The cool pavement coating is a water-based, non-toxic, recyclable product that bonds to asphalt.

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, according to a city release.

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. 

The durability of the coating, which officials said 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, according to the release.

For more: https://www.phoenix.gov/Streets/CoolPavement. ​