Going to bid for a citywide pavement preservation crack and joint seal project was approved by the Snowflake Town Council last week.
“If you build it, you must maintain it,” Public Works Superintendent Terry Cooper advised the council.
Cooper noted that this is the basic theory to a pavement management program, which consists of a series of surface treatment applications to extend the life of asphalt pavements.
Over time, sunlight, moisture, traffic volume and load break down asphalt pavements. Moisture will then penetrate through cracks into the sub-based materials, causing cracking, and leading to potholes and further damage to the roadway, he explained.
“The concept of a pavement management program is to protect or save the roads that are in better condition first to prolong their life expectancy,” Cooper said, noting that it is far more expensive to rebuild a road than to preserve it.
“If the focus and monies are put on the poorer condition roads, before you know it, your good roads are now in poor condition, and it will cost even more to bring them back to good condition,” he said.
Town staff members identified more than 18 miles of roadway that qualify for a first line of defense treatment process, such as crack sealing. The roads are currently in good to bordering on the high side of fair condition, and would benefit from the crack seal treatment process.
Cooper said that next year they would apply a different form of surface treatment to those same roads that would encompass the entire surface, providing additional oils and solids content to bring all these roads up to good or very good condition.
He explained that there are many different types of preservation treatments available, and each has a different cost and longevity. Staff members are looking at several different products for the next phase of the pavement management program, which will be brought back to the council in the next fiscal year.
Cooper noted that they will not ignore all the other roads, letting them fall apart. Funds will be set aside so they can continue to do what needs to be done to hold the roads together.
He requested council approval to go to bid for the citywide pavement preservation crack and joint seal project, and the request was approved unanimously.
“We’re in the business to create business,” said Councilman Stuart Hensley, who encouraged the town to go local first.
Town Manager Paul Watson explained that current state law restricts them on not accepting the low bid. Though it doesn’t allow giving local preference right now, he noted that this issue is coming back to the state legislature.
