Dust Control – Soil Stabilization – Erosion Control

Posts Tagged ‘stone chips’

MANSFIELD — Townships, counties and the state are increasingly abandoning asphalt paving programs amid climbing costs and dwindling resources.

Rural areas are taking the most dramatic steps, with some converting paved roads to gravel based on cheaper maintenance and the high price of asphalt.

Coshocton County, home to 36,000 people and 350 miles of road, is using a maintenance-only plan to salvage the best paved roads, county Engineer Fred Wachtel said. Those in the worst condition are reverting to gravel.

“We’re losing ground and I think most other folks, especially in rural areas, are in the same situation,” Wachtel said.

Others are adopting a method called chip and seal, which spreads a layer of low-grade asphalt emulsion and compacts stone chips on top of it. It is considerably less expensive up front, but chip-and-sealed roads have to be resurfaced two or three times in the life span of a traditional asphalt road.

Richland County roads are now almost exclusively chip-and-sealed, but county Engineer Tom Beck said that’s borne out of short-term financial demands.

“You don’t really save too much money in the long run doing chip and seal,” Beck said. “Over the long haul, when you are doing that two or two and a half times as often, long-term savings are not there.”

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