Sonoma County crews compact a stretch of Sonoma Mountain Road off of Adobe
Road near Petaluma as part of a maintenance test to see if the section, ground up
and injected with a hardening enzyme, can withstand winter storms.
Press Democrat photo by Jeff Kan Lee
Martin Stein came home from a two-week vacation to find Sonoma Mountain Road in front of his house had been turned into dirt, and he doesn’t like it.
A 600-foot stretch of the one-time asphalt road and about 10 inches of the dirt below had been pulverized, injected with water containing a hardening enzyme and compacted, leaving for now essentially a hard-surfaced yet dirt road. Next year, it’ll be chip sealed.
Stein’s section is part of an experiment by the Sonoma County Transportation and Public Works Department to see if it can stretch its maintenance dollars by smoothing out pothole-patched roads without having to completely rebuild them.
Sonoma Mountain Road, which likely was originally built as a dirt road, is the test site: The 600-foot stretch in the 6100 block between Santa Rosa and Kenwood as well as two other stretches –- 900 feet and 2,400 feet -– off Adobe Road near Petaluma. Grinding of the longer stretches, both marked with dozens and dozens of pothole patching, began Monday.
Rob Houweling, operations coordinator for the department’s northern-southern division, said the county wants to see how the stretches of road hold up during this winter’s storms before deciding whether the tests are a success.
Another test section of the specially treated dirt road is on a 600-foot section
of Sonoma Mountain Road between Bennett Valley and Kenwood.
This photo shows the dirt portion meeting the asphalt part of the road.
Photo by pressdemocrat.com.
He said the biodegradable enzyme product, Perma-Zyme11x, bonds the grounded up road into a hard surface that is supposed to shed water. If the tests prove successful, then Houweling said the stretches of road will be chip sealed next year and the county will consider grinding up other rural roads that get little use but need extensive repairs. CLICK HERE to see a Perma-Zyme11x video of how the process works.
If the tests fail, he said, the county will make repairs and chip seal the three sections of Sonoma Mountain Road.
Houweling emphasized that the pulverization-enzyme treatment provides the county with “huge cost savings.”
As an example, he noted the 900- and 2,400-foot sections will cost $8,000 in enzyme, plus $6,400 for renting a mammoth road pulverizer machine and an undetermined amount for county workers’ time. In contrast, it would cost the county $75,000 in asphalt alone to cover those sections 2 inches deep, he said.
Other counties have used the pulverization-enzyme technique with success.
Steve Stangland, road superintendent for Lake County’s Public Works Department, pretty much swears by the technique.
He said Permazyme bonds the ground up asphalt and clay soil into a concrete-like road surface.
“It saves us a lot of money” for road maintenance, he said.
He said he’s done several stretches of roads in Lake County using the technique, including four miles of Big Canyon Road near Middletown.
Despite the road departments’ enthusiasm for the technique, Stein isn’t.
“The amount of dust is substantial every time a car comes through,” he said.
“As an asthmatic, I am not delighted by the thought of breathing this dust in my house and whenever I drive or jog along the road,” he said.
The dust also coats the tasty blackberries growing along the road, he said. And a neighbor is planning to put in a vineyard and the dust will affect that as well, he said.
Houweling said dust from the road should dissipate over time and he promised to send a sweeper truck to remove some of the loose dirt.
Stein conceded his road needed some help — it was in the same lousy shape as the rest of the road is” –- and he’s “symphathetic to the money concerns.”
But he’s upset residents weren’t notified of the project, which Houweling acknowledged wasn’t done, and thinks the county should chip seal his road now rather than later.
He said he’s not opposed to his road being chip sealed rather than paved – “we have chip sealed roads on our ranch and they do fine” – but “why not chip seal it now to see if it” holds up?
W
Back to dirt roads, huh?
**scratches head, whilst chewing on a spike of hay straw**
Rain plus dirt still equals mud, doesn’t it? Modern little cars aren’t built for driving on mud roads. Is the county going to buy those folks up Sonoma Mountain Road some 4 wheel drive vehicles to use this winter? Or maybe a horse and buggy?
August 31st, 2010 7:32 am
Jack
So, we are going back to dirt roads so the county can save money. Interesting that the cost of the county employee’s time is “unknown” in this article. They are finding more and more ways to do less work with more money. If they let our roads get worse and worse, they can put the cash they save right back into their compensation plans. Neat trick. I wish I had a job that had a huge compensation package for doing hardly any work.
August 31st, 2010 7:40 am
Anita
I live off Old Redwood Highway in the Larkfield/Wikiup area. Has anyone taken a close look at the current resurfacing job? Has not yet been completed and parts of the overlaid pavement already falling apart. What happens when the rains start?……..LOL……..
August 31st, 2010 8:00 am
ER
Chip sealing has failed on State Farm Drive and the frontage road on the west side of 101 in Rohnert Park and on Farmers Lane in Santa Rosa. Major fail! Come on, County, check with the Montana road department, they chip seal their roads every year and those withstand snow and freezing temperatures. You need to find out what they use.
August 31st, 2010 8:31 am
Dave
I guess I better stop complaining about Sonoma County’s uber-lame chip seal resurfacing. I thought safely controlling my road bike on the chip-seal was a nightmare (Pepper Rd, Crane Canyon, W. Sierra)… Now I have to ditch my road bike for a cyclo-cross or a mountain bike for a “road ride”. Heck, if this enzyme works maybe they will open a bypass through Annadel to Oakmont.
August 31st, 2010 9:01 am
michaelj
everybody’s an expert…
August 31st, 2010 9:20 am
Michael Leahy
If the county is interested in saving road paving money, I don’t know why they don’t look into shimming up monuments, like man hole covers, before they lay down asphalt. Over 30 years ago I worked on a road crew in Multnomah County Oregon where they used standard thickness aluminum shims to shim up monuments prior to paving. You just determine the thickness of the new pavement, shim up the monuments that amount, spray them with a bit of diesel fuel, pave over them. and brush off any excess asphalt. We had standard thickness shims available for all the monuments used in the roads. Here monuments are paved over, and then jackhammered out. The monument receptacle is then redone in cement, the monument is replaced, and asphalt is put around the redone monument. This old fashioned method requires much more time and money.
August 31st, 2010 9:48 am
Dwimby Anon
Actually it’s worth a try. We were a lot happier when we had dirt roads and no internet. Or not?
August 31st, 2010 12:42 pm
Pete
I live in the 6500 block of Sonoma Mtn. Rd. and the dust from this “test” section is the only draw back if works. The supervisor running this job a month ago said the dust would subside in a few days but it has not yet. The alternative? poorly maintained pot hole filled road. Soco. road repair crews DO NOT fix pot holes properly, they leave compaction of newly installed asphalt to car tires because they don’t have the man power to do it correctly, this from the mouth of a road repair person..
August 31st, 2010 1:19 pm
Nick
If you watch the film this is a perfect product for Sonoma County “GREEN”. I can’t wait until they do more roads like this. Keep up the good work Sonoma County!!
August 31st, 2010 1:50 pm
DavidJH
Surviving winter huh ?…imagine wet harden dirt as a driving surface, I seriously doubt it’s going to be a safe road to drive on and when winter is over (if they don’t chip seal ) the dust that will be flying all around. The roads they have tried to smooth and chip seal isn’t a big improvement, the bumps are still there. Sonoma needs to fix a lot of roads obviously and yes it will be expendsive, but hopefully if they do it, they will do it right and make a road that is smooth and safe.
August 31st, 2010 2:13 pm
sheryl
No money to properly maintain our infastructure? How shocking!! Not really, considering what they really do spend OUR money on. Over inflated pension plans, illegal aliens and nice, pretty bike sculptures!! We get dirt roads! We really are becoming a third world country.
August 31st, 2010 3:02 pm
sheryl
Dirt roads for cars, but paved ones for bikes? Brilliant!!!
August 31st, 2010 3:13 pm
tdh
I think it is interesting how people talk without really “knowing” what they are talking about.
I think this is a fantastic idea. By turning the roads back to dirt, the roads will become safer if they are properly graded periodically. Have pothole “patch” after pothole patch is much more dangerous to drive on. It creates more wear and tear on your vehicle.
Really, todays vehicles arent made to drive on dirt roads? Are you kidding me?!? More people drive SUV’s equipped with 4 wheel drive than dont these days. Most of those people probably dont even know where the switch to change it into four wheel drive is located.
You all will be just fine with your dirt roads. Aside from the annoying dust, you might like driving on them better.
August 31st, 2010 3:32 pm
David
“No man power to do the work”? Never mind the high costs of supporting a county employee. We all know that we spend to much money for what we get. No knocks on you county workers, some of you are great assets to the community, and you should have a good paying job. But we know we could get better results from most sectors of the government if we really wanted to look around. Never mind that, because we have the man power to get these jobs done and lower the costs of the county’s labor. We just need to employ the huge number of people who are collecting checks and not doing ANYTHING for it. If you are receiving unemployment checks, disability checks, food stamps, or subsistence/welfare money from any other source, you should be doing something to serve your community. And sometimes that means work! In so much as someone is able to physically do it, or unless it doesn’t make sense to make them do a particular job, a person should earn their benefits. Yes, if you are bed bound, you’re probably not gonna get a job filling potholes, but someone out there is able to do it easily enough. And they’re already getting paid. That’s my 5 cents worth…
August 31st, 2010 4:22 pm
gwes
Dirt roads for most of us seem like a drawback, I’d listen to folks that live in the test areas (only). Sounds like everyone else seems to just enjoy getting upset without understanding the problems our county government. Ranting about county employees is another favorite passtime. It’s unfortunate we can’t have a productive conversation about Sonoma Mtn road in general, remember the slides that closed the road for 2 years? All the water sheeting down the (paved) road surfaces? Potholes everywhere? Could that have something to do with the counties decision testing areas? Quit complaining, turn off the TV and do something productive.
August 31st, 2010 5:59 pm
Jimbo96
Maybe if they didn’t spend the gas tax money on anything other than roads for cars and trucks they would have enough to maintain the road system the taxes are supposed to be use for.
August 31st, 2010 7:48 pm
Barbara
As someone who uses a bicycle for transportation as well as pleasure, I do appreciate smooth pavement. And because Sonoma County, along with the rest of the world, needs to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we need to encourage a significant shift away from private motor vehicles and toward much more active (human powered) transportation. So bicycle and pedestrian friendly infrastructure is important. That said, if the enzymes and the dust pass environmental muster, (I’ve seen no discussion of THAT question) it makes sense to try this and see if we can’t make it work for all users. I appreciate gwes’ thoughtful comment.
August 31st, 2010 9:54 pm
Christine
I live on Sonoma Mountain Rd. and will be affected if the roads are allowed to return to dirt. I would like to know how these roads will hold up to the large trucks and farm equipment that use these roads daily. This time of year, in particular, with the grape harvest, 1 out of three vehicles I see going past my home are huge trucks hauling grapes. Also, what do the bicyclists who use these roads think about losing their precious bike routes?
October 26th, 2010 12:54 pm
John
I think this is a fantastic idea.
Sonoma Mountain Road was never designed for the volume of traffic it currently see’s. This is made worse by the fact that teens have learned to exploit the current road issues at one spot to get their trucks airborne on a daily basis.
Friday nights it becomes lover’s lane, a place for drunken debauchery and where people go to do things they don’t want people to know their doing.
Landowners have gone from collecting beer cans, underwear, dumped trash and appliances to now discarded syringes, cookers and other drug paraphernalia.
There is hardly a weekend a car doesn’t crash through a fence. Fixing them has been enormously costly for land managers and has practically become a full time job.
One spot on the mountain was gravel for a year. During that year there was a significant decline in accidents, fence damage, car racing and overall trash accumulation.
A dirt road might seem slower and less convenient. However if it significantly reduces the negative environmental impact unnecessary traffic has brought to the mountain then I feel that the dirt road will be appreciated in the long run.
November 15th, 2010 11:36 am