County public works officials updated their chip seal plan on May 14, with 16 miles of county roads targeted for repair this year.

According to the plan, the longest stretch of chip sealing is slated for Dosewallips Road, where crews will lay 3.86 miles of chip seal, beginning at milepost zero. Other south county roads will also see repairs, with Blackpoint Road slated for 1.19 miles of repair and Mountain Trail with 1.04 miles. There are 64 roads listed in all.

“All or this year's chip seal program is south of Mt. Walker,” said Jefferson County Public Works Director Monte Reinders. “The average ‘age’ since the last chip seal is about 20 years on these roads. That's too long, but it is our budget reality.” The road repair technique uses asphalt chips blended with oil to rejuvenate the road surface. 

Reinders added, “I think chip seal is mostly misunderstood and people complain, but it is the most economical way to preserve our roads. It disturbs traffic very little and can be driven on (at lower speeds) almost immediately. Once completed, swept, fog sealed and striped, most people will admit it looks like a brand-new road and that to us is satisfying.”

The county’s department of public works manages 400 miles of roads including 8.4 miles of multi-use trail including the Larry Scott Trail, the Olympic Discovery Trail, and the Rick Tollefson Trail. Chip sealing is the most common resurfacing method on Jefferson County roads. Chip sealing is usually used to pave long stretches of rural roads, but it has also been used successfully on urban roads.

“There is a reason that many of Jefferson County's roads are in pretty good shape,” Reinders said. “They were built right in the first place and the county has worked to regularly preserve them; however our chip seal program is about half the size it used to be due to costs outpacing revenues. Chip seal is a cost-effective way to preserve roads; that's why all 39 counties in Washington have a chip seal program.”

Roads deteriorate with age, Reinders added. “The sun bakes the oils out of them leaving them brittle. Once cracking starts, water infiltrates and does further damage at an accelerating rate. Road preservation, which is what chip seal is, works to counteract these processes, but must happen before the road is too far gone. Chip seal does what it sounds like: it seals and rejuvenates the road surface.”

Chip sealing is done during the summer months because hot, dry weather helps to speed the process of curing the new surface. All of the remaining water in the emulsion evaporates, and the asphalt hardens.