Alligator Cracking Repair in Keizer, Oregon

Quick Verdict

Alligator cracking repair in Keizer almost always means full-depth repair, because that interconnected, scaly pattern is a sign the base under your asphalt has failed — not a surface problem you can seal away. On Marion County lots, sitting on the soft, water-holding bottomland soils near the Willamette River, fatigue cracking is one of the most common failures we see. The honest fix is to remove the failed section, rebuild the base, and repave. Sealing or overlaying alligator cracking only buys a season before it returns. This guide explains why it happens here and how it gets repaired correctly.

What Alligator Cracking Is

Alligator cracking — also called fatigue cracking — is a web of interconnected cracks resembling reptile skin or chicken wire, found in the wheel paths where traffic concentrates. It is the clearest sign in pavement diagnosis that the problem is structural.

The mechanism: the base under the asphalt has lost strength, usually because water got in and softened it. With no firm foundation, the asphalt flexes under every vehicle, and repeated flexing fatigues it until it cracks into the alligator pattern. The surface failure you see is the late stage of a failure that already happened underneath. Our pavement distress diagnosis guide and the detailed alligator cracking causes and repair guide cover the full mechanism.

Why It Happens in Keizer

Keizer sits just north of Salem in Marion County, on low ground in the Willamette River floodplain. The conditions here are tough on a pavement base:

• Bottomland river soils. Much of Keizer sits on soft, fine-grained floodplain soil that holds water and loses strength when saturated — exactly what produces fatigue cracking.
• High water table. Low ground near the Willamette can keep the sub-grade wet, giving the base little chance to dry out.
• Long wet season. Months of Willamette Valley rain keep the structure saturated.
• Mixed traffic. Commercial lots around Keizer Station and the River Road corridor see steady delivery and shopping traffic that loads the wheel paths.

Grading the Severity

Using the low/medium/high tiers from ASTM D6433:

Severity	What you see	What it means
Low	Fine, hairline interconnected cracks	Base starting to fail; act now
Medium	Defined network, some spalling	Base failure underway; full-depth repair
High	Pieces rocking, pumping, potholes forming	Advanced failure; larger rebuild

Catching it at low severity keeps the repair small. Left to high severity, the failed zone spreads and the bill grows with it.

Why Sealing or Overlaying Won't Work

Crack sealing keeps water out of a working surface crack — but alligator cracking is a base failure, so there is nothing to seal. An overlay places new asphalt over the failed area, but the base is still soft, so the new surface flexes and the alligator pattern reflects right back through within a season or two.

The durable fix is full-depth repair: saw-cut the failed section, remove the bad asphalt and softened base, rebuild the base with proper aggregate and compaction, and repave. On Keizer's wet bottomland, getting the base material and compaction right is the whole job — that is what restores the foundation.

How a Full-Depth Repair Works on Wet Ground

When alligator cracking on a Keizer lot needs full-depth repair, the wet bottomland makes a couple of steps especially important. The sequence:

1. Mark the failed area. The crew maps the alligator-cracked zone and usually cuts past the visible cracking, because on saturated floodplain soil the failed base spreads beyond the surface pattern.
2. Saw-cut and remove. Clean cuts define the patch, and the failed asphalt comes out down to the base.
3. Dig out the bad base — and check the water. On Keizer's high-water-table ground, the crew has to remove the softened material and figure out why it got wet. If the base is wet because water keeps reaching it, the repair has to address that source, not just swap material.
4. Rebuild with the right material and compaction. Fresh aggregate base goes in and is compacted in lifts. On soft river-bottom soil, sometimes a stabilizing layer or geotextile is warranted so the new base does not sink into the soft sub-grade.
5. Pave and seal the edges. New asphalt is placed and compacted, and the seams are sealed against water re-entry.

The dig-out and drainage steps are where Keizer repairs live or die. A patch that ignores the water source on this ground simply fails again, so it is worth doing right the first time.

When Replacement Beats Repair

If alligator cracking covers more than roughly 25 to 30 percent of the lot, patching most of the surface stops making sense and full replacement becomes the cheaper long-term choice. Our repair vs. replace decision guide covers the crossover.

Industry Baseline Range: full-depth repair of fatigue-cracked areas commonly runs in the range of several dollars per square foot and up+, well above a surface seal, because it includes removal, base rebuild, and repaving. 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

Material and trucking costs in Marion County follow the asphalt index, and Oregon's short May-to-October window concentrates demand. For Keizer owners, the worst value is the cheap bid that overlays alligator cracking — it reflects through within a season and you pay twice. Repairing the base once, correctly, with attention to drainage on this wet ground, is the rational spend.

The Bottom Line

Alligator cracking in Keizer is base failure, and base failure needs a base fix. On the Willamette bottomland's soft, wet soils, fatigue cracking spreads if you ignore it. Full-depth repair restores the foundation; sealing and overlays only delay it. Catch it early to keep the repair small, and replace once if it has spread too far. Cojo provides asphalt repair services across Keizer and the Salem area. Request an assessment and we will tell you how deep the failure goes and what it takes to fix it for good.