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Pavement Preservation

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Santa Barbara County opts for emulsions in its pavement preservation efforts

Pavement preservation

"We've used a broad range of technologies in an effort to maintain our roads as we deal with rising asphalt prices," Scott McGolpin, interim director of Santa Barbara Countys Public Works, says. Here is a road before (below) and after (above) application of a scrub seal.

A scrub seal is an application that uses a polymer modified asphalt rejuvenator. A specifically-designed drag broom is then pulled through the emulsion, filling cracks and voids left open by the initial application.

Then an even coat of sand (scrub seal), chips (chip seal) or other readily available aggregate is applied over the emulsion. The seal is then rolled with a pneumatic tire compactor.

The two primary surface treatments used by the Santa Barbara's Transportation Division include fog seal and scrub seal applications.

A fog seal is a thin and relatively inexpensive application of asphalt emulsion. This provides a seal to the asphalt surface and limits water from penetrating the roadway. A fog seal application extends the service life of a road approximately one to two years.

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Micro Surfacing Overcomes Road Failure Challenges

By Greg Udelhofen
Editor

California's Santa Barbara County implemented a pavement preservation program in 1999 to maximize taxpayer investments in the agency's road network. Historically, Santa Barbara County has done a limited amount of chip seal. The county was looking for preservation alternatives that would allow it to divert resulting cost savings to the reconstruction of some of its worst roads.

Utilizing a Road Maintenance Annual Plan (RdMAP) Program, the county's Department of Public Works' Transportation Division was able to educate and gain the support of residents and public officials to develop a contract that would resurrect the condition of roadways and provide an additional eight to 12 years of service life to those targeted roads. The emulsion slurry seal proposal was the least cost alternative to maximizing dollars available for resurfacing roads that were in good condition.

RdMAP is key
Santa Barbara County's Road Maintenance Annual Plan (RdMAP) is the vehicle by which the Maintenance Section of the Transportation Division completes its mission - "Provide a Clear Path, a Smooth Ride and a Safe Trip."

Proposed projects are selected using public input and requests, the MicroPaver Pavement Management program, Board of Supervisor priorities, and the staff's professional assessment of roadway conditions. Since the inception of the RdMAP in the early 1990s, the Transportation Division has strived to include the public and its elected officials in the maintenance planning process for upcoming road projects.

At the beginning of the 2004/2005 maintenance year, county maintenance crews began applying fog seals as part of department's maintenance activities. Fog seals help protect and preserve pavements that have been applied within the past four paving seasons, and during the 2005/2006 maintenance year crews applied 28,000 gallons of fog seal product to approximately 300,000 square yards of pavement surface.

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