Oil and gravel on state highways?

[US 41]

INDOT just recently put oil and gravel on SR 46 from Riley to SR 59 and is soon going to do the same to SR 59 from 46 to I-70. I'm not sure I like the oil and gravel, it seems like something that should be done on a county road, not a state highway. Has anyone else seen where a state highway gets oil and gravel?

[corco]

Montana is full of them- I bet most 30% of our system is gravel, though many of those roads would be technically state highways (and are often signed as such) but are maintained by the county with state aid.

Others- parts of Washington 165, Arizona 288, Arizona 366, Arizona 81, Idaho 64, Idaho 7, Idaho 29, South Dakota 20, a few in Nebraska. They're out there, and not even that infrequently. If it's a low traffic road, there really is no reason to pave it- a well-maintained gravel road is a much nicer drive than a poorly-maintained paved road.

[adt1982]

Illinois 49 has had sections of oil and chip for at least the past 8 years.

[tchafe1978]

The county where I live regularly chip seals the county highways, but I have yet to see it be done on a state highway in the county. It's a cheaper way to maintain the roads than putting a whole new layer of asphalt down.

[PurdueBill]

US 24 near Logansport (between concrete stretches near US 31 and US 35) got the oil/chip treatment over the previous asphalt recently (was it last year or the year before? I already forget).  I hadn't seen a FRESH OIL sign in forever until then...a couple of the FRESH OIL signs were yellow!  Maybe old enough to predate orange construction signs? They looked it. 

[Brian556]

In Texas we call it seal coating, and all categories of state-maintained highway other than interstate can have this treatment.

It has disadvantages including:
1. It's noisy to drive on.
2. Tar bleeds to surface. In hot weather it can became a problem when it melts, esp if seal coat is relatively new. Areas where tar bleeds to surface can be very slippery when wet.
3. When tar becomes soft during hot weather, areas can become devoid of gravels making the road rather rough.

Overall, I think this type of surface sucks. I noticed that Florida does not do this.

[corco]

Oh, we're talking chip seal, not just wet gravel. Yeah, screw that on state highways. Just make it gravel and keep it watered.

[oscar]

Alaska uses chip seal on parts of the the Dalton Highway (AK 11) and some other northern roads vulnerable to permafrost sags/heaves, since you don't lose too much if the subsurface shifts, and it at least cuts down on the dust and flying gravel compared to just leaving it as gravel.  Some of the northernmost 100 miles or so of the highway was nominally paved in that fashion, but after a few years it's almost reverted back to gravel.

I think some other Arctic highways also get chip seal, including at least the Top of the World Highway/YT 9 west of Dawson, which is also nominally paved but not really.

[hbelkins]

I seem to remember Arizona and New Mexico chip-sealing some US routes (64, 160 or 666, I can't remember for sure) when I was in the Four Corners area in 1991.

[jnewkirk77]

INDOT has actually been doing this for several years; at least since Daniels was governor.  The whole "oooh, look what we can do for less money!" approach kinda bugged me at first, but once it's been down for a while, it's not bad.  Seems to hold up well on the roads I use most frequently.

[ZLoth]

Isn't this type of surface bad for paint jobs and windshields?

[on_wisconsin]

WisDOT NW region uses chip seal on state and US highways routinely.

[Mr_Northside]

PennDOT uses them a lot.

[qguy]

PennDOT uses them a lot.

I used to work in PennDOT District 6. PennDOT uses this all over the state except, ironically, in Dist 6. PennDOT calls it "oil-and-chip."

I can't stand it, for the reasons already given plus it make a huge mess. Crews spray and spread oil on the roadway, then spread fine crushed stone (pea-sized and smaller) over the oil. Some of the stone is captured by the oil, but most of it seems to end up along the side of the road, in drainage swales and culverts, in driveways, in front lawns... anywhere that's near the road. It just makes everything gritty and dirty.

It is cost-effective, however.

[trafficsignal]

Isn't this type of surface bad for paint jobs and windshields?

Not able to prove the cause, but we drove out and back to a relative's house over freshly done chip & seal a couple years ago.  We noticed a crack when we got back home, & the relatives drove the route often and had a crack in each of their windshields.  Seems like too much gravel put down rather than unlucky coincidence.

[Bitmapped]

Chip-seal can work pretty well as long as it's on top of a thick enough layer of pavement and the traffic volume isn't excessively high.  I'd rather deal with chip-seal than potholes or heavily patched asphalt roadways.

In Ohio, ODOT has used chip-seal on lower volume state routes in the western and NW parts of the state for a while.  Since about 2006, it's started appearing in the eastern part of the state and on moderate volume state routes (~7500 VPD) as well.

PennDOT uses it all over the place on lower volume state routes and US routes.  VDOT does the same.  I've also seen VDOT use chip-seal over potholed or rough areas where the rest of the surface is still asphalt.

[JREwing78]

Michigan does it on lower-volume state highways pretty frequently. They tend to do a pretty good job of not leaving a lot of excess gravel to nail windshields, at least compared to the county roads.

[CtrlAltDel]

I had just seen chip sealing done this weekend, on H-58 just east of Munising, Michigan. I had no idea what it was at the time, though, so I'm quite happy to have happened upon this thread. 

Anyway, since I've only seen it once before, as far as I'm aware, I have no judgment on its effectiveness, but I will say there were an awful lot of rocks dinging in my wheel wells until they had all gotten pushed to the side of the road.

[triplemultiplex]

Chip seal is worthless.  Instead of a bumpy road, it's now a bumpy road that's also extremely loud, cracks windshields and wears tires down faster.  For some reason, western states seem to love it.  I've even seen it on interstates in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. 

I'll tell you what it does do; it makes it look like they fixed up the road.  Especially with that extra layer of shiny black seal coat on top.
At over 70 mph, you can pretend you're driving a jet airplane with all the noise it makes.
If you have to ride with someone you don't like talking to, a chip sealed highway means you won't be able to hear each other anyway so there's a good excuse to shut up.
If there happen to be pedestrians or one of those cross-country bicyclists along the road, folks that have disdain for those types of locomotion might get satisfaction out of potentially pelting them with errant stones.  (hint: the loose stones tend to accumulate along the lane striping.)

[froggie]

Chip seal is worthless.

Amongst others, MnDOT has documented chip seal as a cost-effective way to preserve and extend the life of pavement...especially on lower-volume roads.  You and others may loathe it, but it's still better than gravel.

[triplemultiplex]

Amongst others, MnDOT has documented chip seal as a cost-effective way to preserve and extend the life of pavement...especially on lower-volume roads.  You and others may loathe it, but it's still better than gravel.

But they are just transferring the wear and tear from the pavement to vehicle tires.  So the cost is also being transferred to drivers with the added bonus of potentially leaving a motorist stranded when a tire gives out earlier than expected.

That rationale raises the question even more so to me why hundreds of miles of interstate highways have been chip sealed in western states like New Mexico.  Different definition of "low volume", I guess.  I know it's mostly desert, but the chip seal portions seem to develop ruts faster than plain asphalt.  So when it does rain, there's an increased hydroplaning risk.

I should probably specify I'm mostly concerned about chip seal on high speed roadways.  It's one thing if a windy and/or hilly route where most vehicles are only doing 40 or 50 has chip seal.  But interstates and long, straight, flat two lane highways?  Grumble...

[wxfree]

I saw some chip sealing done as stimulus projects a few years back.  One location was US 377 in Granbury, Texas, a heavily traveled road which had beautiful smooth brand new asphalt pavement.  Within a few months the surface was worn.  It was torn up so badly that sections near traffic signals had to be repaved.  They also covered brand new pavement on FM 4 northwest of Granbury.  This part is still intact, but smooth (slippery when wet).  Recently they chip sealed FM 4 northwest of Cleburne, and within a month the curves (it's a curvy road) were rough.  Maybe it's just the way TxDOT does it that isn't very good, but chip seal in my experience is not suitable for high speed or high traffic roads.  It seems fine for county roads.

[roadfro]

In Nevada, I've only really ever seen chip seals done on local neighborhood streets. I think NDOT takes the following approaches (in order of increasing rehabilitation needs): crack seal, slurry seal, "mill and fill", "mill and fill" plus overlay.

[cpzilliacus]

I have seen chip seal (and gravel surface, too) on quite a few highways in Finland and Sweden. 

Were those roads in Virginia, they would be in the secondary system.

Been a long time since I have encountered a Nordic primary network highway with anything other than asphalt pavement. 

[hbelkins]

Amongst others, MnDOT has documented chip seal as a cost-effective way to preserve and extend the life of pavement...especially on lower-volume roads.  You and others may loathe it, but it's still better than gravel.

A couple of decades ago, the county judge-executive of Estill County, Ky., proposed chip-sealing a number of the county's gravel roads. He said this would be a cheap way to get them paved, and as an added bonus, would eliminate the county's messy practice of oiling down gravel roads in front of residences to keep the dust down. It would also allow the county to salt the roads in the winter instead of just scraping them, since you can't really salt a gravel road. A surprising number of people objected, saying that a paved road would result in increased speeds on the narrow, crooked roads that are typical of county roads in this part of Kentucky. They preferred gravel to chip seal.