The summer highway construction season grinds on, with roads in Jefferson City next on the county’s to-do list.
Beginning Monday, Aug.12, circumstances permitting, road repair and resurfacing will begin on Wickes Road, Corbin Road, Jefferson and Spring Streets, and Depot Road. Drivers can expect flaggers, slower speeds and temporary delays until work is completed in a projected 10 to 14 days.
Bear Taylor, the county’s roads and bridge supervisor, says he is watching this project with more interest than usual. That’s because the county is experimenting with a new road technology, called “Dustpods,” which Taylor hopes will become part of the future of county road maintenance.
Dustpods are an aggregate stabilizing polymer — basically, a glue to make the molecules of a road surface bind together more strongly. In practical terms, that means fewer potholes, for longer.
Taylor’s plan is to mix the current aggregate that makes road surfaces with the chemical agents in the Dustpods. “We’re going to grind up about four inches along the surface,” he explains, “then combine that material with the Dustpads and grade it out.” Taylor says that based on his investigation of the technique, road surfaces will last three to four times longer than regular chip seal. The result, he hopes, is that well-traveled road surfaces in the county won’t have to be repaired every year, as they are now.
That could ease the stress on the county’s spending. Its budget for road and street maintenance has increased steadily over the last five years, to $1.46 million in the current fiscal year. But County Commission Chair Cory Kirsch said revenue hasn’t kept up with the cost of labor and petroleum-based materials, “which is most of the supplies that the road department needs to maintain the roads throughout the county.”
New road maintenance options such as Dustpods hold the promise that “we may not have to go out to these roads every year, maybe just every three to four years,” Taylor says. “That gives us the chance to do some other things with the time and equipment.”
Taylor is expecting some backlash from area drivers. The new road surfaces in Jefferson City will be gravel when finished, rather than the current chip seal pavement. “Lots of people think the road is asphalt, when it’s really just layers of chip seal,” Taylor says. “Laying down chip seal was fine when there were just a few drivers, but with all the extra traffic, it just doesn’t hold up.”
Taylor is referring to traffic from the usual recreational visitors, but also to the fact that many new homes have been built in the area recently. “The trucks that carry all those building materials out there are really taking a toll,” he says.
