Loose chippings used on road repairs

[HappyGrandpa]

In their wisdom East Sussex County Council seem determined to make life more difficult for us cyclists. In an effort to smooth out the appalling road surfaces that have pot holes and broken road coverings, they are now using loose chippings. These are spread over the road surface and vehicles that travel along spread these chippings over the road. The larger amount finishes up several centimetres thick along each side of the road. This causes a skid risk to cyclists, as we have cycle through the loose chippings, while we dodge the loose stones that are flicked up into our faces, by the car tyres as they speed along ignoring the advisory 10 mph speed limit, while the chippings get bedded in. I don’t know why they cannot use the nice smooth asphalt like they use on some roads. This is smooth and almost silent from inside of cars, whereas the loose chippings are rough and noisy.

 

[retiredNH]

It could be worse...
My town repaved a stretch of road with wonderfully smooth asphalt. Two weeks later, they used chip seal on top! This is fresh tar sprayed on the road followed by fine gravel. We stumbled (rode, actually) on this later in the day they did it, and rode for about a mile with tar, tar covered gravel and who knows what else being kicked up by our bike tires. This was a downhill stretch, which is normally a nice run, but not this day or the next week or so.

Chip sealing is often used on older asphalt roads, as a way to extend their life, and is much cheaper than fresh paving, but I've never before seen it used on fresh asphalt. Regardless of old or new asphalt, I've found it takes about a week for the excess chips to get pushed to the berms. it's messy and scary until then.

 

[Cowlitz]

It is very common here. We call it Chip Seal. It keeps the windshield repair/replacement folks busy. I avoid riding on it until it all has either been flung off or is swept off the road. I don't want to get hit by it. Many years ago, I was trying to commute to work on my acooustic bike. One day, while I was at work, the county road crew chip sealed all the roads, except for the busy highway, that I took to get home. I rode on the highway for a while, then slogged through the freshly oiled layer of gravel. It was not fun so I went back to driving for a while.

Unfortunately, I've noticed a lot of loose gravel at intersections for some reason this year. I don't know why.

Oh, and the town crew did a cheap, horrible job of patching holes with asphalt. No power tools used for compacting so we have a series of unintended speedbumps all over the place. Such is life. Sigh...

 

[mschwett]

Chip seal is very, very cheap. Something like 5 or more times cheaper than asphalt, very skid resistant for cars, and if applied every 10 years or less will generally keep roads in ”good” condition indefinitely. Not the nicest surface to ride on, but it does get much better than it is the first few weeks.

On the rare-ish occasions I ride a bike outside of coastal California, I’m shocked how rough many roads are. I feel for you all! Super smooth roads in harsh climates would be nice all year round, but I’m guessing nobody wants to pay the taxes that it would take to maintain them….

 

[retiredNH]

Chip seal is very, very cheap. Something like 5 or more times cheaper than asphalt, very skid resistant for cars, and if applied every 10 years or less will generally keep roads in ”good” condition indefinitely. Not the nicest surface to ride on, but it does get much better than it is the first few weeks.

On the rare-ish occasions I ride a bike outside of coastal California, I’m shocked how rough many roads are. I feel for you all! Super smooth roads in harsh climates would be nice all year round, but I’m guessing nobody wants to pay the taxes that it would take to maintain them….

The problem in some places, like here in NH, is not cost. It's impossible to build a road that won't have some frost heave humps in the spring. (OK, I guess interstate highways are built to a slightly higher standard?) All our local roads suffer, but we're used to it. At least the towns frequently pave. Oddly too, our "dirt" roads, which are really gravel and granite dust, can be pretty smooth except for spring mud season, when we have weight limits for a few weeks, and then grading and rolling once they dry out a bit.

Chip seal? Yes, it can be pretty good, and is cheap, as long as you don't come across it right after they've done it like we did!

 

[kevinmccune]

In their wisdom East Sussex County Council seem determined to make life more difficult for us cyclists. In an effort to smooth out the appalling road surfaces that have pot holes and broken road coverings, they are now using loose chippings. These are spread over the road surface and vehicles that travel along spread these chippings over the road. The larger amount finishes up several centimetres thick along each side of the road. This causes a skid risk to cyclists, as we have cycle through the loose chippings, while we dodge the loose stones that are flicked up into our faces, by the car tyres as they speed along ignoring the advisory 10 mph speed limit, while the chippings get bedded in. I don’t know why they cannot use the nice smooth asphalt like they use on some roads. This is smooth and almost silent from inside of cars, whereas the loose chippings are rough and noisy.

"Chipped and sealed", cheaper, you do not involve a 'batch plant and hotmix( you only need an Asphalt spreader and some sort of chip spreader and roller, on fresh roads over in the US it is called 'surface treatment"( skiddy)

 

[AHicks]

That chip/road tar road construction is seen frequently in Northern Mi where the secondary roads are solid ice for much of the winter. I like it actually, because it seems to work pretty good - without the frost heaves seen with more typical asphalt construction. I actually inquired about it for a driveway, but found out that it's just not practical to scale it down to something that size.

When they are building/repairing these roads, there's generally big signs warning of loose gravel. Yes, not something I'd want to be riding a bike or a motorcycle on for sure. Not the fresh stuff anyway!

 

[kevinmccune]

It is very common here. We call it Chip Seal. It keeps the windshield repair/replacement folks busy. I avoid riding on it until it all has either been flung off or is swept off the road. I don't want to get hit by it. Many years ago, I was trying to commute to work on my acooustic bike. One day, while I was at work, the county road crew chip sealed all the roads, except for the busy highway, that I took to get home. I rode on the highway for a while, then slogged through the freshly oiled layer of gravel. It was not fun so I went back to driving for a while.

Unfortunately, I've noticed a lot of loose gravel at intersections for some reason this year. I don't know why.

Oh, and the town crew did a cheap, horrible job of patching holes with asphalt. No power tools used for compacting so we have a series of unintended speedbumps all over the place. Such is life. Sigh...

They probably used "cold mix" to patch holes with.

 

[kevinmccune]

The problem in some places, like here in NH, is not cost. It's impossible to build a road that won't have some frost heave humps in the spring. (OK, I guess interstate highways are built to a slightly higher standard?) All our local roads suffer, but we're used to it. At least the towns frequently pave. Oddly too, our "dirt" roads, which are really gravel and granite dust, can be pretty smooth except for spring mud season, when we have weight limits for a few weeks, and then grading and rolling once they dry out a bit.

Chip seal? Yes, it can be pretty good, and is cheap, as long as you don't come across it right after they've done it like we did!

Since the climate seems to have gotten warmer we havent really had a "mud season around here since the 1970s or 80s and I cant say I miss it because during the thaw you couldn't venture off the main roads and the main roads very seldom "heave any more. Don't miss thawing the water lines either( who sez "global warming" cant have a slighty "good side'? fun fact Human populations thrived during the inter glacial warm periods)

 

[Mulezen]

^Robert Frost “Two tramps in mud time”.

 

[dodgeman]

Same here, they call it oil and chip. It takes about a month to get better for bikes. They also have an oil and chip machine that just fixes small areas, kind of an oil and chip pothole machine.

 

[Mulezen]

Last year I was in a line of traffic held back by a flag man. They were tarring in prep for chips…lazy guy at other end let traffic through as I was going up a hill and I had to move into the tar.

 

[mschwett]

The problem in some places, like here in NH, is not cost. It's impossible to build a road that won't have some frost heave humps in the spring. (OK, I guess interstate highways are built to a slightly higher standard?) All our local roads suffer, but we're used to it. At least the towns frequently pave. Oddly too, our "dirt" roads, which are really gravel and granite dust, can be pretty smooth except for spring mud season, when we have weight limits for a few weeks, and then grading and rolling once they dry out a bit.

Chip seal? Yes, it can be pretty good, and is cheap, as long as you don't come across it right after they've done it like we did!

well, it is and it isn't cost. you *could* build a road which was both smooth and resistant to the ill effects of cold weather, but it would be very, very expensive. more like an interstate, as you note, than a local road. you have to worry about water from both above and below.

agreed on the chip seal, it sucks when new, is never great but not the end of the world, even on a road bike. the skinniest tires i've ridden were 26mm at 90psi, for a few thousand miles, and i wasn't too bothered by any road surface i found out here other than a few crazy steep potholed urban descents, not the kind of thing you'd find outside the city.

 

[Cowlitz]

Guess what? It looks like my plan to use my bike to run errands is over for at least a few days. Took off to get groceries and encountered the dreaded freshly done chip seal. The gravel was uneven--deep in spots so going had to be very slow. Meanwhile, cars and the dumptrucks were whizzing by. I kept on thinking that it would end. It didn't and it looks like that whole side of town is in the project. That's my main grocery shopping area. I rode back on the heavily traveled main street and then pealed off on a side street--which will soon be chip sealed. So, it's back to driving short distances for groceries. Bah!

 

[HappyGrandpa]

In their wisdom East Sussex County Council seem determined to make life more difficult for us cyclists. In an effort to smooth out the appalling road surfaces that have pot holes and broken road coverings, they are now using loose chippings. These are spread over the road surface and vehicles that travel along spread these chippings over the road. The larger amount finishes up several centimetres thick along each side of the road. This causes a skid risk to cyclists, as we have cycle through the loose chippings, while we dodge the loose stones that are flicked up into our faces, by the car tyres as they speed along ignoring the advisory 10 mph speed limit, while the chippings get bedded in. I don’t know why they cannot use the nice smooth asphalt like they use on some roads. This is smooth and almost silent from inside of cars, whereas the loose chippings are rough and noisy.

Well thank goodness for hidden mercies - on Wednesday in order to avoid the loose gravel chippings, I cycled on the footpath that runs parallel to the road. I had a expected blackout and was helped by 2 passers by. I eventually ended up in the coronary care unit at our local hospital. I am now home fitted with a pacemaker. According to the ECG, I had a trifisicular? block and even more alarming my heart paused for 8 seconds. So no cycling for a while. It could have been a whole lot worse.

 

[retiredNH]

Well thank goodness for hidden mercies - on Wednesday in order to avoid the loose gravel chippings, I cycled on the footpath that runs parallel to the road. I had a expected blackout and was helped by 2 passers by. I eventually ended up in the coronary care unit at our local hospital. I am now home fitted with a pacemaker. According to the ECG, I had a trifisicular? block and even more alarming my heart paused for 8 seconds. So no cycling for a while. It could have been a whole lot worse.

good luck in your recovery!

 

[kevinmccune]

Well thank goodness for hidden mercies - on Wednesday in order to avoid the loose gravel chippings, I cycled on the footpath that runs parallel to the road. I had a expected blackout and was helped by 2 passers by. I eventually ended up in the coronary care unit at our local hospital. I am now home fitted with a pacemaker. According to the ECG, I had a trifisicular? block and even more alarming my heart paused for 8 seconds. So no cycling for a while. It could have been a whole lot worse.

Just take it easy, these things creep up on a person, People feel fine .till they don't, its amazing how resilient the Human critter is, you will be back in the saddle in no time, best,speedy recovery-Kevin( some Angels do not have wings)

 

[HappyGrandpa]

Just take it easy, these things creep up on a person, People feel fine .till they don't, its amazing how resilient the Human critter is, you will be back in the saddle in no time, best,speedy recovery-Kevin( some Angels do not have wings)

Thank you. Yes no restrictions on cycling but no driving or lift for 6 weeks, while the pacemaker beds in.

 

[kevinmccune]

Thank you. Yes no restrictions on cycling but no driving or lift for 6 weeks, while the pacemaker beds in.

In these situations, the Dr knows best and it will be a memory shortly.