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With a crew of 15, including Ruhl, C and C handles the entire chip seal operation from applying the emulsion, spreading the natural stone, rolling the stone into the emulsion, trucking, traffic control and applying temporary lane markings.

"We work primarily in Southwest Michigan and Kent County has the most progressive road maintenance program in place compared to the other agencies we service," Ruhl says. "They have a pretty aggressive goal in achieving and maintaining a network of good roads, and we're happy to part of that plan."

As for micro-surfacing work, Ohio-based Terry Asphalt Materials Inc., a division of Barrett Industries Corporation, has been Kent County's go-to contractor for the past decade.

In the mid-1990s, Kent County wanted to use a preservation treatment that provided a smoother surface and would hold up to snow plows. The county uses micro-surfacing treatments for:

• Rut-filling — Utilizing a rut box that re-profiles each individual rut when the rut depth exceeds ½ inch, the micro-surfacing application requires a 3FA aggregate and special mix design.
• Two-course application — This application utilizes a conventional laydown box with a steel screed to level or scratch the first course to correct minor pavement defects, and the typical spread rate is 12 to 16 pounds per square yard. The surface course is then applied at a rate of 18 to 20 pounds per square yard.
• Single-course application — This application is typically used on pavements that have a good cross section and ride, and the application works well over chip-seal roads, with the typical spread rate of 18 to 21 pounds per square yard. Terry Asphalt Materials utilizes Ontario Trap Rock to help the application retain a dark gray color.
• Black Mat surface course — This treatment is a hybrid of micro-surfacing that utilizes Ontario Trap Rock and a mix design that is much softer than a conventional micro-surfacing mix design, and it provides a smoother and quieter pavement surface. Terry Asphalt has been applying this surface treatment in residential areas at a typical application rate of 17 to 22 pounds per square yard.

"We're one of the largest, more reputable asphalt emulsion producers in the Michigan/Ohio area and we not only perform Kent County's micro-surfacing work, but we also supply the emulsion they use on their chip seal projects," says Rusty Terry, who's in charge of Michigan sales and technical support for Terry Materials. "We've been applying approximately 400,000 square yards of slurry annually using a continuous micro-surfacing machine on large road projects and a (Bergkamp) truck-mounted micro-paver on smaller residential projects.