The city of Breezy Point has a number of gravel roads. The city has a goal to eventually pave all of
these but with 65 miles of roadway in the city and less than half of them paved
it will take a good deal of time and resources to make that goal a reality.
Roads are a concern for everyone and they all require
maintenance whether gravel or asphalt.
With paved roads we all think of maintenance with pothole repairs. Seal coating is another maintenance effort
accomplished on paved roads. This extends
the life of a road by covering minor cracks and giving the road a new wear
course.
With gravel roads we have understand they need to be graded
to refresh the surface. Grading moves
the materials that have been pushed to the side into the traveled portion of the
road. It also returns the roadway to a
flatter surface eliminating washboard surfaces and other imperfections. Most of the well-traveled roads also see dust
coating accomplished. This involves an annual layer of calcium chloride which
coats the surface to keep the fine materials of the road in place.
A new approach for treating gravel roads is something the
city will be trying. In some respects
this is an old approach with a twist.
The old approach is that of applying tar on a gravel road to slowly
build up the surface towards a paved road.
The new approach is similar with the application of the seal coat used
on asphalt roads along with a rock application done twice. This is known as a Double Chip Seal.
This application won’t build up to eventually give us a
paved road but it will provide some of the attributes of a paved road. It provides dust coating. It seals the gravel to hold it in place so
grading isn’t required. It also provides
some erosion control. Unfortunately it
isn’t a permanent solution. The
treatment generally lasts 5 to 7 years and is an expensive maintenance activity
versus that of dust control. With the
approval the council sees this as a demonstration project. We’ll try it out to see how it holds up to
determine if this is something that might be used elsewhere. As a demonstration project they want to
determine; how long it will last, how it holds up to plowing and traffic, and
does it give us some erosion control.
This will be tried on three streets in one area; Aspen Lane,
Birch Lane, and a portion of Oak Lane.
Prior to installation of the Double Chip Seal the roadway needs to be
final graded and firmed up with some compaction. This will be done with the seal coating that
is scheduled for later in the month. We
hope we have good results with this but time will tell. We really don’t know if you don’t give it a
try.
