ForConstructionPros.com

Going 'green' and sustainability have become part of the asphalt industry's daily dialogue, so it should come as no surprise that the City of Duarte, CA, was one of the first road agencies to initiate a green pavement preservation process.

In 2003, Pavement Coatings Co. of Cypress, CA, was contracted by the City of Duarte, located 10 miles east of Pasadena, to deliver the agency's annual slurry seal program.

The road preservation contractor asked to treat one road in the project with a slurry seal containing 100% reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). Five years later, the performance of that RAP slurry sealed street provided the confidence city officials needed to specify 100% RAP slurry seal for all roads included in its 2008 contract.

Steve Esbenshade, Duarte Engineering Division Manager, is responsible for maintaining the quality of the city's 51 centerline miles of asphalt roadways. As a 20-year employee of the city, Esbenshade takes pride in the good service quality of all the roads he oversees in the community that's home to 22,000 residents.

"Thirty-seven centerline miles of our road system are residential roads, and our citizens expect those roads to be maintained in good condition," Esbenshade says. "100% of all of our roads have received a preservation treatment of some type; whether it is slurry, cape, HMA overlay or asphalt rubber overlay. To keep our roads in good condition, I try to schedule some type of slurry treatment every five to seven years, and I make sure that one-third of the streets scheduled for maintenance each year are residential streets."