I'm assuming this is about that shiny black patching material that is used widely on large stretches of rural roads. There's quite a bit of it on the Paoli loop. I consider it to be the stupidest road maintenance practice around today.
First, here's the State's story: http://www.dot.state.oh.us/districts/d03/pages/chipsealfactsheet.aspx The key term is "low cost." I believe the municipalities got suckered into this practice because of that, and because the road LOOKS fixed once it's been chip sealed. Real black, shiny, takes paint well. HOWEVER: 1) Chip sealing doesn't fill in potholes and cracks. In fact, it makes them more prominent because there's now more space between the top of the treated pavement and the bottom of the hole. 2) It doesn't cover well. I see patches of the old blacktop coming through even after fresh installations. 3) It's very rough and hard on both bike and car tires. 4) It doesn't last. The first snowplow probably takes up 40% of whatever you applied. Frankly, I prefer the old tar and pea gravel approach to cheap repairs. It's terrible right after application, but once it gets beaten down it's a smoother surface (by a small margin) than the chip seal. I'd love to see the road maintenance officials get up close and personal with this crap like we have to. Maybe they wouldn't talk themselves into it as often. ------------ Patrick Lenon Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2011 10:53:59 -0500 From: [email protected] To: [email protected] CC: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Bikies] Fwd: Chip sealing and bike tires Robbie, I'm not sure I actually know what chip-sealing is, although I can hazard a guess. A few years ago I was riding on PD, which had recently been re-covered, and it looked like they used shards of broken glass in tar as the top road cover material (I know that it's not actually shards of glass) and it caused my tire to go flat. What I noticed on that particular road is that eventually the road became less hazardous as car tires embedded the "shards" into the substrate. The bike lane/shoulder takes longer to become flattened b/c cars aren't driving on it all that much, so maybe a steamroller could do that job? I'm curious to hear the responses that you get- please post them if folks don't 'reply all'. Thanks, India On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 10:46 AM, Robbie Webber <[email protected]> wrote: Dear community of collective wisdom, Can anyone comment about this [below email from Ald. Lisa Subeck]? Anyone had a similar experience? Heard other complaints? Know if a new material is being used? I had an email about a problem in Fitchburg forwarded to me this AM, so Steve Arnold may be familiar with this, but is Madison also using something sharp and pointy as aggregate? Rewey - you must know what's up...Robbie Webber ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lisa Subeck <[email protected]> Date: Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 9:53 AM Subject: Chip sealing and bike tires To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Hi Robbie, I just had a call from a constituent who is having problems with bike tires popping due to chip sealed streets. She commutes by bike and has had to replace tires several times in the last few weeks. The people at Erik's Bike Shop indicated to her that the problem is riding on chip sealed roads, which she can't avoid getting out of her neighborhood. the folks at Erik's told her they have been running into this problem a lot. They said there was even an organized ride (MS Ride maybe) last week that had numerous people on the ride pop tires from a chip sealed portion of the route. Since I think of you as an expert on all things bike, I'm curious If you've heard of this problem at all. If this is a significant problem, is it something we should put on an upcoming PBMV committee agenda? As my constituent pointed out, this doesn't contribute to making us a bike friendly city. Please let me know if you've heard about this problem at all. I will also he talking to the appropriate city staff but thought I'd check in with you, too. Thanks, Lisa Sent from my iPhone so please excuse any typos. _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
_______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
