What is an asphalt paver?
A paver is a self-propelled machine that takes loose hot mix from trucks and places it as a continuous layer, called a mat, at a set width, thickness and slope. Before pavers, asphalt was spread by hand and with graders; machine laying is what makes a long road or a large parking lot smooth enough to drive on at speed.
Every paver has two halves. The tractor at the front carries the hopper, conveyors, augers, engine, tracks or wheels and the operator. The screed at the back is towed on long arms and does the actual shaping. The tractor's job is to deliver a steady supply of mix at a steady speed; the screed's job is to turn that supply into a uniform layer.
It goes by several names. Asphalt paver, paving machine, road paver and asphalt laying machine are common in the US; asphalt finisher and paver-finisher are common elsewhere. A "paver" in landscaping is a brick or concrete block, which is a different thing entirely.
How asphalt is laid with a paver, step by step
A paving crew is usually a paver operator, one or two screed operators, a few laborers with rakes and lutes, roller operators and a steady line of trucks from the plant. Here is how a lane or a lot gets paved.
Prepare the surface
The base is graded and compacted, or the old pavement is cleaned or milled. A tack coat, a thin spray of asphalt emulsion, goes down on existing pavement so the new layer bonds to it.
Set up and heat the screed
The crew sets the paving width, the crown or cross-slope and the starting thickness, and turns on the screed heaters. A cold screed drags and tears the mix, so it is heated before the first truck arrives.
Fill the hopper
A dump truck backs up to the paver. The paver's push rollers meet the truck's rear tires, and the truck raises its bed and is pushed along in neutral while it empties into the hopper. On some jobs a material transfer vehicle feeds the paver instead.
Feed the mix to the screed
Two slat conveyors drag the mix back through the tractor, and two augers spread it across the full width in front of the screed. Sensors at the ends of the augers speed the feed up or slow it down to keep the pile in front of the screed, the head of material, at a steady height.
Lay the mat
The paver moves forward at a constant speed. The screed floats on the mix, levels it and strikes it off at the set thickness, and its tamper bars or vibrators give it the first compaction. Grade sensors read a ski, a string line or the lane beside it and hold the height and slope.
Compact it while it is hot
Rollers follow close behind: a breakdown roller first, then intermediate and finish rollers. They have to finish before the mat cools too much to compact. The finished layer ends up about a fifth thinner than it came out of the paver.
Parts of an asphalt paver
Highway pavers and small commercial pavers have the same basic parts. Click See it in 3D to jump to each one in the model.
- Hopper and push rollers
- The bin at the front that receives mix from the trucks and holds enough to keep paving between loads, roughly 10 to 15 tons on a highway paver. Its folding sides are called wings. The push rollers on the front bumper let the paver push a truck while it dumps.See it in 3D
- Slat conveyors and flow gates
- Two chain conveyors with steel bars, one per side, that drag the mix from the hopper through a tunnel under the engine. Each side runs on its own, so the paver can feed more mix to one side than the other.See it in 3D
- Augers
- Two spiral augers that spread the mix across the full width in front of the screed. They work best turning slowly and almost all the time, about half buried in mix.See it in 3D
- Screed
- The heated plate that floats on the mix and sets the thickness and texture of the mat. It carries the heaters, tamper bars or vibrators, and the cranks and controls for thickness, crown and slope.See it in 3D
- Screed extensions and end gates
- Hydraulic sections that slide out from the main screed to pave wider, and the plates at the ends that hold the mix in and form the edge. A highway paver with an 8 to 10 ft main screed can usually extend to about 15 to 20 ft.See it in 3D
- Tow arms and tow points
- The long arms that pull the screed. Their length is what lets the screed float and average out bumps, and the tow point at the front of each arm is what the grade control raises or lowers.See it in 3D
- Grade and slope control
- Sensors that read a reference (an averaging ski, a string line, the lane beside it or a 3D system) and move the tow points to hold the screed at the right height and slope.See it in 3D
- Tracks or wheels
- Rubber tracks on most highway pavers for grip and flotation; rubber tires on wheeled pavers, which travel faster between jobs.See it in 3D
- Operator station
- Where the paver operator steers and sets speed and feed. Screed operators work from the platform and control boxes at the back.See it in 3D
How the screed sets the thickness
The screed is not bolted to the tractor at a fixed height. It is towed on long arms that pivot at the tow points, and it floats on the mix. Where it settles depends on a balance of forces: its own weight pressing down, and the mix pushing back up against the plate as the paver pulls it forward. Change that balance and the screed rises or falls until it finds a new level.
The main control is the screed's angle of attack. Tilt the leading edge up, by turning the thickness cranks or raising the tow points, and the screed climbs and lays a thicker mat. Tilt it down and the mat gets thinner. The change is gradual: the screed takes several tow-arm lengths of travel, roughly five on many machines, to settle at a new thickness. That delay is what makes the paver smooth, because a bump under the tracks is mostly averaged out before it reaches the mat.
It also means anything else that changes the balance changes the mat. A rising head of material pushes harder on the screed and lifts it; a falling head lets it sink. A faster paver lays a thinner mat, a slower one a thicker mat. Hotter mix is softer and offers less resistance than cooler mix. That is why good paving is mostly about keeping things constant: the same speed, the same head of material and the same mix temperature, with the grade control making small corrections.
How fast does a paver lay asphalt?
Paving speed is set by how fast the plant and the trucks can deliver mix, not by how fast the paver can drive. Pavers commonly lay at about 15 to 50 feet per minute. The right speed is the one the paver can hold all day without stopping, because every stop and start can leave a bump or a dip.
The arithmetic is simple. Compacted hot mix weighs about 145.2 lb per cubic foot, so a 12 ft lane laid 2 inches thick uses about 290 lb of mix per foot of length. At 200 tons an hour from the plant, that is about 23 feet per minute. A 20-ton truck covers about 140 ft of that lane, so a truck has to arrive about every 6 minutes. At 1.5 inches thick, the same supply moves the paver at about 31 ft per minute.
Use the asphalt calculator to turn an area and thickness into tons, and the trucking calculator to work out how many trucks keep a paver moving. A paver waiting on trucks is the most common reason a smooth job turns rough.
Types of asphalt pavers
Pavers are grouped by size and by what they run on. Widths below are typical across manufacturers, not the specification of any model.
| Type | Paving width | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Highway-class tracked paver | About 8 to 10 ft basic, out to about 15 to 20 ft hydraulically, wider with bolt-on sections | Highways, interstates, airports and large parking lots |
| Highway-class wheeled paver | Similar to tracked | City streets and commercial work where the paver moves between sites often |
| Commercial-class paver | About 8 ft basic, out to about 13 to 15 ft | Parking lots, subdivisions, driveways and smaller streets |
| Small and utility pavers | About 2 to 8 ft | Sidewalks, trails, driveways, shoulders and trench patches |
| Material transfer vehicle (feeds the paver) | Not a paver | Remixes the mix and feeds the paver continuously so trucks never touch it |
The 3D model above is a highway-class tracked paver with rear-mounted hydraulic extensions, paving a 12 ft lane in a milled road.
What makes a smooth, even mat
Most paving defects trace back to the supply of mix to the screed changing. These are the habits paving crews and inspectors watch for:
- A constant paving speed, matched to the trucks, with as few stops as possible.
- A steady head of material, with augers turning almost all the time and buried about halfway.
- Trucks that never bump the paver. The truck stops short, and the paver picks it up.
- Not running the hopper empty and not folding the wings after every load, which sends cooler, coarser mix from the corners to the screed and can leave patches of segregation.
- A heated screed and mix at the right temperature, so the mat does not tear or drag.
- A lift thick enough for the mix, generally at least 3 to 4 times its largest stone size, so it can be compacted. See asphalt paving thickness for parking lots for how thick each layer should be.
- Rollers right behind the paver, finishing compaction while the mat is hot.
What does machine-laid asphalt cost?
Property owners pay for the finished pavement, not for the paver. As a 2026 national planning range, a new residential asphalt driveway commonly runs about $4.00 to $8.00 per square foot, new asphalt on a commercial lot about $3.50 to $8.00, and an overlay over sound pavement about $2.00 to $5.00. Small jobs often carry a minimum charge, partly because bringing a paver, rollers and a crew to the site costs the same whether the job is 500 or 5,000 square feet.
For the full breakdown, see asphalt paving cost and asphalt overlay cost. To estimate the tons for a job, use the asphalt calculator.
Asphalt paver questions
What is the name of the machine used to lay asphalt?
It is called an asphalt paver, also known as a paving machine, road paver, asphalt laying machine or asphalt finisher. It receives hot mix from dump trucks, spreads it across the width with conveyors and augers, and lays it at a set thickness with a heated screed. Rollers then compact it.
What does the screed do on an asphalt paver?
The screed is the heated plate towed behind the paver. It floats on the mix and sets the thickness, width, slope and surface texture of the new mat, and its tamper bars or vibrators give the mat its first compaction. Thickness is changed by tilting the screed with the thickness cranks or the tow points.
How fast does an asphalt paver go?
Most pavers lay asphalt at about 15 to 50 feet per minute. The speed is set by how much mix the plant and trucks can deliver: at 200 tons an hour, a 12 ft lane 2 inches thick moves at about 23 feet per minute. Pavers travel faster between jobs, but crews aim for a constant paving speed with as few stops as possible.
How thick can an asphalt paver lay asphalt?
Pavers can lay a wide range of thicknesses, but each layer, or lift, is limited by how well it can be compacted. Surface lifts are commonly about 1.5 to 2 inches, and base lifts about 2 to 4 inches. Thicker pavements are built in several lifts. A lift should be at least 3 to 4 times the largest stone size in the mix.
What is the difference between a tracked and a wheeled paver?
Tracked pavers run on rubber tracks, which give more grip and spread the weight on a soft base. They are the usual choice for highway work. Wheeled pavers run on rubber tires, travel faster between sites and turn more easily, so they are common on city streets and commercial jobs. Both lay asphalt the same way.
What is a material transfer vehicle?
A material transfer vehicle, or MTV, is a machine that sits between the trucks and the paver. Trucks dump into the MTV, which remixes the asphalt and conveys it into a hopper insert on the paver. It keeps the paver moving without stopping for trucks, keeps trucks from bumping the paver, and reduces temperature and size segregation. Many highway specifications require one.
How many people does it take to run a paver?
A typical paving crew has a paver operator, one or two screed operators, a few laborers who rake joints and edges, two or more roller operators and someone directing trucks. Truck drivers and the plant are part of the operation too.
How much does an asphalt paver cost?
Small and commercial pavers cost less than highway pavers, but all of them are major equipment purchases, and new highway-class pavers commonly run several hundred thousand dollars or more. Most property owners never deal with that cost directly. They hire a paving contractor, whose price per square foot already covers the paver, rollers and crew.
A typical machine, not every machine: The 3D model and figures describe a typical highway-class paver and common practice. Pavers differ by manufacturer and model, and widths, speeds, thicknesses and prices on a real job depend on the mix, the specification and the contractor.