The County Highway Department will start their chip and sealing program Thursday. It will continue over the next several weeks according to Jason Peters, Highway Supervisor.
Chip and sealing will start on Underwood Road between 19B and 18A. Crews will move on to 20B Road from Sage Road to State Road 117 and the 19B from 19th Road to Tamarack. After that county employees will chip and seal Tamarack from 19B to the town limits before moving to 14B Road between Olive Trail and Nutmeg Road.
As the chip and sealing projects continue through the end of the month, Maple Road from 12th to 13th Roads will be done and crews will move on to 12th Road from Maple to Muckshaw Roads. Next on the list is the Nutmeg subdivision and the Carriage Hills subdivision. This entire list of projects is weather permitting.
Road closures will be involved during the chip and seal process. Supervisor Jason Peters asks drivers to please try and avoid these areas if road closed signs are up.
Transport tanks will be delivering asphalt emulsion along road sides close to the sealing crews. There may be times during the transferring from the asphalt tanker to distributor that vehicles may not be able to pass. Once the application is preformed the stone and emulsion need time to cure so the road closed signs will remain in place.
When the roadway is open drive with caution. High speed causes stone to move and dislodge and will not rehear to surface and lose its protective coating on road, and cause a bare spot on the road surface where the water will be able to penetrate to sub base of the road causing the potential for a pothole.
Peters asks drivers to allow a little extra when braking when coming to a stop, and try to avoid spinning out when taking off. There may be some lose aggregate on road surface, and speed will cause stone to flip up, reducing speed on fresh sealed roadway is a major help and a great safety practice.
The average cost for a mile of chip and seal is $13,000 to $15,000 based on stone and emulsion used. The average cost for double chip and seal is $22,000 to $25,000 based on stone and emulsion used.
