Alligator Cracking Repair in Happy Valley, Oregon

Quick Verdict

Alligator cracking in Happy Valley is a base failure, not a surface flaw, and that changes the whole repair. The connected, reptile-skin pattern means the asphalt has lost the structural support beneath it, so sealing or sealcoating over it does nothing — the cracks come right back. The real repair is to remove the failed pavement and rebuild the base with full-depth patching. On Happy Valley's sloped lots below Mount Scott, that often means tracking down the drainage that softened the base in the first place. This guide explains why fatigue cracking happens here and what an honest, lasting fix involves.

What Alligator Cracking Actually Is

Alligator cracking — also called fatigue cracking — is what happens when asphalt is flexed past its limit too many times. Every vehicle that rolls over a weak spot bends the pavement a little. When the base underneath cannot push back, that bending fatigues the asphalt until it cracks into the tight, connected web that gives the distress its name.

Unlike a single thermal crack, alligator cracking is structural. It tells you the load is no longer carried by a sound base. Our pavement distress diagnosis guide shows how this differs from the surface cracks covered in our asphalt crack repair in Happy Valley guide.

Why It Shows Up in Happy Valley

Happy Valley sits on the elevated, sloped terrain below Mount Scott in northern Clackamas County, and several local conditions feed fatigue cracking:

• Slope drainage. Water running across and through sloped lots concentrates in low spots and along the downhill edge, saturating the base and softening it where it should be strongest.
• Water-holding clay. Saturated valley clay loses strength. A base over soft, wet sub-grade flexes under load and fatigues the asphalt above.
• Graded hillside lots. Cut-and-fill construction can leave variable base support, and the filled side often settles and fatigues first.
• Heavy traffic. Commercial lots and growing arterials carry loads a quiet street never sees, concentrating fatigue where vehicles turn and brake.

Why You Cannot Seal or Sealcoat It Away

This is the costly mistake. Sealcoat is a thin surface coating with no structural strength. Crack filler bridges a gap but restores no support. Neither puts strength back into a failed base. Spend money sealing over alligator cracking and you get a tidy lot for a few months and the same failure soon after — and on a slope, the next rain finds the weak spot fast.

If a contractor offers to "seal up" an alligatored area cheap, that is a red flag. The only honest fixes for fatigue cracking are full-depth repair of the failed sections or, when failure is widespread, reconstruction.

The Real Fix: Full-Depth Repair

A lasting repair on alligatored pavement follows these steps:

1. Saw-cut and remove the failed asphalt down to the base, cutting back to sound pavement on all sides.
2. Inspect and repair the base. This often means removing wet, contaminated rock and adding clean aggregate, sometimes with a geotextile fabric over soft sub-grade.
3. Fix the drainage. On a Happy Valley slope this is the step that makes the repair last — stop the water that softened the base from reaching it again.
4. Pave back in lifts and compact properly so the patch carries load like the rest of the lot.

Industry Baseline Range: full-depth patching of fatigue-cracked areas typically runs in the range of $4.00 to $12.00+ per square foot depending on depth, base repair, and access. These are industry baseline ranges for planning only — actual pricing depends on lot size, access, condition, and current market conditions. Get a site-specific quote.

Current Market Reality

The cost of an alligator repair depends on how much has failed. Catch a small, isolated patch early and it is manageable. On a sloped lot, let it spread through a couple of wet winters and the drainage keeps feeding the failure, pushing you from patching into reconstruction. Because Oregon's paving window is May through October and Clackamas County crews fill up fast, early action almost always means a smaller, cheaper fix.

The Bottom Line for Happy Valley Property Owners

Alligator cracking is your pavement telling you the base has failed. On a hillside lot, the cheapest path is to fix it while it is isolated and stop the drainage that caused it — otherwise the failure just walks downhill. Sealing over it wastes money. Cojo provides asphalt repair services across Clackamas County and the Portland metro and will tell you straight whether you need a patch, a drainage fix, or a bigger rebuild. Request an assessment and we will read your lot honestly before you spend.