The three photos below show what I call “chip & seal” materials on our streets. If you’ve driven around Eden Prairie much, you’ve probably seen a street or two that looks like this:
I get questions every year from citizens about why we do this to our streets. The “chip & seal” process has three steps. First, a sticky oily material is spread over the street. Second, very small rock chips are spread over the oily mixture. And third, you and I drive on this mixture to grind it into the pavement below.
As we drive on our streets, we slowly wear away the top driving surface of the street itself. You might think this surface is hard, but it cars and nature will wear it down. The chipped rock material adds new hard surface to street. The new hard surface adds longer life to the street.
This process is a relatively inexpensive maintenance technique. It is typically applied to streets that are less than ten years old. It is much less expensive than removing and replacing the original asphalt street. We try to do that only when their is a need to repalce the underground utilities under the street or when their is a substantial pavement failure in the street over time. As Eden Prairie ages, we’ll certainly begin to see more of both.
There is a possibility of getting the sticky material on your shoes or your car. If you do, call our Engineering Division Office at 952.949.8300 and they can give you some advice on how to take care of that. This process can also make it look like we are going back to gravel roads in Eden Prairie. I can promise you that we’re not doing that.
Summer road maintenance. We have to do it. This process, while it has a mess associated with it, is really a good idea for our roads and our taxpayers.
