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Oil and chip road repairs wrap up across Erie County

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Tue, Aug 23rd 2016 02:35 pm

EC Department of Public Works covers over 170 miles of roads, distributes over 12,000 tons of patch and 23,200 tons of stone in pavement preservation work

The Erie County Department of Public Works' Highways Division has announced the conclusion of the oil and chip portion of the county's 2016 road program, with operations in the Aurora, Clarence, East Concord and Hamburg districts wrapping up today.

During the months of May and June, crews worked across Erie County to place over 12,000 tons of patch on roads scheduled for oil and chip. They followed that effort with an oil and stone process that covered 172 centerline miles of low-volume gravel roads around the county with over 23,200 tons of stone and over three-quarters of a million gallons of asphalt emulsion to protect the road surface. 

"The summer road construction season has provided good weather to repair our county roads, and crews have taken advantage of that to extend their efforts as far as possible," Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz said.  "The oil and chip process is essential to extending the life of our county's many miles of low-volume roads, most of which are in rural areas, and I thank our crews for their hard work in covering 172 miles of these roads."

The Aurora district reports covering 52 centerline miles of roads, using 7,200 tons of stone and 210,000 gallons of asphalt emulsion; the Clarence district covered 30 centerline miles of road with 4,700 tons of stone and 178,000 gallons of asphalt emulsion; the East Concord district finished 45 centerline miles of road and used 5,600 tons of stone along with 195,000 gallons of asphalt emulsion; and the Hamburg district also repaired 45 centerline miles of  road using 5,700 tons of stone and 223,000 gallons of asphalt emulsion. Total repairs across the county covered nearly 15 percent of Erie County's 1,200 center line miles of roads.

Repairs to road surfaces also included a chip seal, which consists of a layer of asphalt binder overlaid with embedded aggregate stone. The chip seal provides protection to the underlying asphalt layer by sealing small cracks and inhibiting water intrusion, and also provides a macro-texture that creates a skid-resistant surface for vehicle traffic. Chip seals are a preventive maintenance treatment that extends road life and compares favorably in cost to other, more intensive road repairs.

For more information on the Erie County Department of Public Works, visit http://www2.erie.gov/dpw/.  

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