After a public outcry, Caltrans is speeding up plans to spend millions to repave stretches of Highways 29 and 175 in Lake County that were chip sealed just this past summer at a cost of $2.1 million but left drivers fuming over the rough results.
“The chip seal project, which Caltrans may say met its needs, from the public aspect is terrible,” said Lake County Supervisor Jim Comstock. “I’m very glad to see that they’re accelerating their paving project.”
Chip sealing involves a process that involves a layer of tar-like petroleum mixed with finely ground aggregate.
Caltrans spent about $1.3 million to chip seal a 12-mile stretch of Highway 29 from the Lake County line north to Hidden Valley and $800,000 to do a 8.5-mile stretch of Highway 175 from Middletown to Cobb –both segments in Comstock’s south Lake County district. But in a departure from its usual practice, Caltrans had its contractor use half-inch rock in the chip seal rather than the typical three-eighths-inch rock.
As a result, the highways became a much rougher ride than expected and drove Lake County drivers and Comstock to complain to Caltrans. Comstock said a petition drive calling on Caltrans to fix the problem drew more than 1,000 signatures.
Comstock said key Caltrans officials from Eureka came to Lake County about two weeks ago to meet with him and “we took a road trip” to inspect the two chip-sealed stretches of highway. He said they conceded the problem and pledged to look into it.
On Thursday, Caltrans announced it would move up to next summer plans for an asphalt overlay project for Highway 175, including the Cobb to Middletown stretch, and would seek funds to repave the chip-sealed segment of Highway 29 “in the near future.”
Caltrans spokesman Phil Frisbie Jr. conceded the chip seal projects didn’t turn out the way Caltrans expected — “it’s not the surface we want out there for the long term.” He said the ride is rougher than before, but Caltrans engineers anticipate the rock chips will settle and the roads will become smoother over time as traffic runs over them.
He said Caltrans has used the bigger half-inch rock on other chip seal projects around the state with good results but, nevertheless, decided to move ahead with the overlay plans because of complaints by the public and Comstock.
Part of the problem with the Lake County projects was that parts of the two highways’ asphalt had worn away, leaving uneven surfaces and shallow ruts, and the chip sealing made the driving worse, Comstock said.
Frisbie noted Caltrans often turns to chip sealing to preserve roads because it is much cheaper than paving with asphalt.
He said the chip sealing work on Highway 175 cost about $90,000 a mile and estimated the overlay project will cost roughly $450,000 a mile. Based on those estimates, the costs to pave over the Highway 175 chip seal will be about $3.825 million and the Highway 29 stretch about $5.4 million.
When Highway 175 is repaved next summer, Frisbie said, the work will cover the stretch from Hopland to Highway 29 and from 29 to Middletown. The total cost of doing both segments is estimated at $15 million, he said.
