The in basket: Doug White
writes, “I live on Olympic View Road
near the intersection of Illich. Last ‘season’ the county did an
extensive rehab of Illich, Lester and Page. The work concluded with
a chip seal coating.
Page still looks great and is wearing well. Illich
has some bare areas where all the chip (gravel) has already worn
off. Lester is even worse off; I would estimate 25 percent of the
surface has no remaining chip. Any idea if the County intends to
redo/repair the chip seal where it has failed?”
The out basket: It seems like one or two of the chip
seal jobs done here each summer has this outcome, with the rock not
staying in the oil mixture on which it is poured to allow traffic
to imbed it.
I wouldn’t say Lester looks much worse than Illich.
Both have many patches of bare surface with the gravel no longer
there. Both have long stretches where the gravel adhered properly,
interrupted by the bare patches.
I don’t know to what degree the gravel plays a part
in the effectiveness of a chip seal. The county says only that
“We will take a look at it during our chip seal
season this summer.”
Look at Olympic View Loop Road NW, just past Illich. There are sections where greater than 50% of the road surface has no more rock on it and is down to bare asphalt. If they can’t do a decent job they should just leave it, because the road is in much worse shape now than it was when they started messing with it.
Its always a bummer having to deal with the chip seal repairs when their peak season rolls around. I have also noticed that quite a bit of the chip has worn of much of the roads that were done just last year in my area. I think that finding a good company to help do chip seal would be a good thing to make sure all of the roads done will have a lasting effect.
Ever wonder why they call it “Chip” seal? Just look at the paint on the front of your car or your windshield for the answer.