New product marketed to add 7-10 years to asphalt paving
The City Council on Monday heard a presentation of the Street and Traffic Committee’s selected projects for the Preventative Maintenance Street Project funds.
Director of Engineering Micah Siemers said one of the priority projects included on the voter approved 2013 Half-Cent Sales Tax Extension ballot was to allocate $750,000 each year of the seven-year extension for preventative maintenance street projects.
Streets selected for repairs this year are:
- Guinn mill and overlay (Rolling Meadows to May) $170,000
- Huntington mill and overlay (Braddock to End) $150,000
- Kristen mill and overlay (Stonewall to Hill) $150,000
- Tuxedo Reclamite (Caney River to Madison) $80,000
- Rogers/Penn/Lannom Reclamite (14th to Lannom) $20,000
The selection process
“Since this project recurs every budget cycle the projects are selected each year accordingly,” Siemers said. “Projects are identified based upon input from city staff, input from the public via complaints or request for attention to particular streets, and based upon the Pavement Condition Index (PCI) that is estimated with a modeling software that determines the condition of our streets based upon deterioration of pavement over time.”
Siemers said engineering department staff puts together estimates for a list of streets to consider and presents them to the Street and Traffic Committee for selection.
“Typically, some additional streets are considered based upon feedback from the committee and then a decision is made and the selected streets are presented to the council as part of the budget process,” he said. “However, this year the committee was not able to meet prior to adoption of the Fiscal Year 2020-21 budget due to the restrictions caused by Covid-19.”
During the budget process earlier this calendar year, the council approved $500,000 in 2013 Half-Cent Sales Tax Fund for Preventative Maintenance Street projects, but not the specific projects.
“Some years we have budgeted more funds towards these projects and some years less funds, but ultimately, with this current budget, we will meet the $750,000 per year over seven years as presented in 2013,” Siemers said. “The intent with these funds is to repair streets that are in relatively good condition but starting to show signs of needing attention to avoid letting streets deteriorate to the point that they are very costly to repair.”
Siemers said once streets get to a certain point of disrepair the pavement condition “falls off at an exponential rate.”
“The deterioration curve is relatively flat up to this point. We try to use these funds to address streets before they get to this point,” he said.
New product
Siemers said plans include using a product called Reclamite to help restore existing paving that is still in good condition — before the point of deterioration.
“Essentially, the application of this product not only seals the asphalt pavement but it penetrates the pavement and rejuvenates the components that keep the paving flexible,” he said. “This product is marketed to extend the life of asphalt streets seven to 10 years. In some cases they have kept asphalt streets flexible and viable for much longer.
Whether or not the Reclamite product makes a substantial difference in the condition of the streets could take some time to realize, Siemers said. He said some test locations will be left untreated so that comparisons can be made.
“The goal is to test it out on the two selected areas and monitor wear of those streets over time and possibly take on more streets in future budget cycles,” he said.
Siemers said that rather than spend all of the available funds on the product the committee decided to select three smaller asphalt mill and overlay projects to use the majority of the funds and then try the Reclamite application on a couple of streets utilizing the remaining funds and some supplemental General Obligation Bond funds left over from past projects.