How summer chip seal work saves Mesa County taxpayers money

Every summer, Mesa County preserves roads before they fail. The work, called chip sealing, helps protect existing pavement from water damage and extends the life of a road at a lower cost than rebuilding it.

Chip sealing is a preventative maintenance treatment applied over existing pavement. It helps seal small cracks and creates a protective surface that keeps water from reaching the base layers of the road.

“The pavement that is there in front of your house or wherever you're driving is the same pavement, we're putting a treatment over the top of it,” said Mesa County Engineering Project Manager Robert Hale.

Over time, pavement  develops cracks that allow water to get down to the base layers of the roadway. When that happens, the road can begin to fail from the bottom up, potentially requiring more expensive reconstruction. Chip sealing and crack repair help address those issues before they become more severe.

Chip seal projects can add eight to 10 years of life to a roadway. It costs significantly less than rebuilding a road. Chip sealing and patching cost $90,000 per mile, compared to $400,000 per mile for entirely new road projects.

Mesa County prioritizes roads based on traffic volume, pavement condition and whether the road is still a good candidate for preservation. The goal is to invest in roads before they deteriorate to the point where more costly repairs are needed.

“If we have arterial roads that are rough, that are maybe unsafe, in poor conditions, those are the ones that we have to direct our attention to,” Hale said. “That's where the dollar should be going, the roads that everybody drives on.”