The in basket: Catherine Long writes, “We live in Shore Woods in Hansville. For some reason, (Kitsap County) Public Works decided to do a treatment to just our roads in Shore Woods. We had paved roads with asphalt and now we have black gooey tar with a bit of gravel tossed around on it.
“What a mess it has been,” she said. “Public Works has been out here off and on attempting to clean up the mess they caused on driveways and more importantly in the culverts.
“Everyone here is at a loss as to why this was done when the entire town is paved.
“This is one of those things that make you go ‘hmmm.’ Can you get us some answers as to why this was done and do we have to live with it?” she asked.
The out basket: Blame it on an unexpected rainfall that hadn’t been in the forecast on which his crews rely, says Don Schultz, the county’s road superintendent.
“The roads in Shorewood plat (are), and have always been, Bituminous Surface Treatment (BST) roads,” Don said. “These are commonly called ‘chip-sealed’ roads. After a road is ‘chip sealed’ it looks like a paved road, and the road surface appears to be asphalt.”
In chip sealing, gravel is spread on a coat of liquid paving oil sprayed on the worn road surface and then is compacted by rubber-tired compactors and the dump trucks after the gravel is applied. Crews come back the next day and sweep up any excess gravel.
“The latest surface treatment is the fourth chip seal treatment there since 1968,” Don said. “BST roads are typically re-surfaced every five to 10 years or longer, depending on traffic volume, truck traffic, freeze-thaw damage, and other factors. Roads are rated each year to determine when roads need resurfacing. Roads are always re-surfaced ‘in kind,’ with the same surface they previously had.
“In this particular application, we did encounter some problems,” he said. “There was no rain predicted on Monday, Aug. 2, the day of the application, as well as the day following.” He enclosed a copy of that forecast.
“Overnight August 2,” he said, “there was a rather heavy rainfall that developed unexpectedly. During the rain there was some emulsion runoff from the road surface. Some driveways were stained by the runoff and we are working with the residents to remove these stains.
“Emulsion did reach the inlet of two culverts, which we cleaned the next day. Once the emulsion is dry there is no concern that it could liquefy again. No emulsion traveled into any water courses.
“The county engineer and I reviewed the site as soon as we received calls alerting us to the problem the morning of Aug. 3,” Don said. “We had crews start clean-up and restoration activities that morning. One of our supervisors personally contacted each affected property owner, and worked with them to address their concerns.
“Many residents have expressed understanding of the situation, and appreciated the proactive reaction to the situation. We recognize the problems caused by this operation, and are working with residents to mitigate any damages caused. If your readers have unresolved issues related to this issue, please have them contact Kitsap 1 (360-337-5777).
I posted the message about the roads in Shore Woods in Hansville. Travis did us all a great service with that article. Unfortunatly, the superintendent that responded to his request skirted around the issues and we still have a problem here. The roads are still weeping the black stuff and driveways are having to be cleaned again. It seems he attempted to make this issue sound like it is a non-issue. There were more than two culverts that were affected and at times there were three seperate crews working with shovels skimming the affected dirt and bagging it up. Also there are six vehicles that I know of that the county came out to clean this mess off of them. Still, there is no answer to why our roads can’t be done like the rest of the town. Like I mentioned, things that make you go hmmmmm…..