Alligator Cracking Repair in Wilsonville, Oregon

Quick Verdict

Alligator cracking in Wilsonville is a base failure, not a surface flaw, and that changes everything about how you fix it. The interconnected, 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 through the next wet season. The real repair is to remove the failed pavement and rebuild the base with proper full-depth patching, and on Wilsonville's water-holding valley clay, that often means addressing drainage and a soft sub-grade too. This guide explains why fatigue cracking happens here and what an honest, lasting fix actually involves.

What Alligator Cracking Actually Is

Alligator cracking — also called fatigue cracking — is what you get when the asphalt has been flexed past its limit too many times. Each time a vehicle rolls over a weak spot, the pavement bends slightly. 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 a structural signal. It tells you the load is no longer being carried by a sound base. Our pavement distress diagnosis guide lays out how this distress differs from the surface cracks covered in our asphalt crack repair in Wilsonville guide.

Why It Shows Up in Wilsonville

Wilsonville's location in southern Clackamas County puts most lots on dense Willamette Valley clay, and that soil is the root of a lot of fatigue cracking here:

• Water-holding clay. Saturated clay loses strength. A base built over soft, wet sub-grade flexes under load, and the asphalt fatigues above it.
• Heavy traffic corridors. Commercial and freight traffic near the Wilsonville industrial area and along Boones Ferry Road loads pavement harder than a quiet street.
• Thin or aging structure. Lots paved thin years ago never had the base depth to carry today's loads, especially where trucks turn and brake.
• Poor drainage. Standing water that wicks into the base from below is the silent driver of fatigue on valley lots.

Why You Cannot Seal or Sealcoat It Away

This is the most expensive mistake property owners make. Sealcoat is a thin surface coating with no structural strength. Crack filler bridges a gap but does not restore support. Neither one puts strength back into a failed base. Spend money sealing over alligator cracking and you have a pretty lot for a few months and the same failure by spring.

If a contractor offers to "seal up" an alligatored area for a low price, that is a red flag. The only honest fixes for fatigue cracking are full-depth repair of the failed sections or, when the 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. On Wilsonville clay this often means removing wet, contaminated rock and adding clean aggregate, sometimes with a geotextile fabric to separate the rock from the clay.
3. Fix drainage so water stops feeding the failure from below.
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 patch 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 heavily on how much has failed. Catch a small, isolated patch early and it is a manageable repair. Let it spread across a Wilsonville lot through a few wet winters and you cross the line from patching into full reconstruction, which costs far more. Because Oregon's paving window is May through October and crews fill up fast, early action almost always means a smaller, cheaper fix.

The Bottom Line for Wilsonville Property Owners

Alligator cracking is your pavement telling you the base has failed. The cheapest path is to repair it while it is still isolated — remove the bad section, fix the base and drainage, and pave it back right. Sealing over it only wastes money. Cojo provides asphalt repair services across Clackamas County and the I-5 corridor and will tell you straight whether you are looking at a patch or a bigger rebuild. Request an assessment and we will read your lot honestly before you spend.