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LISBON -- A road material on at least two state routes in the county is not here to stay permanently, but is part of an "aggressive preservation project" the Ohio Department of Transportation is undertaking as a result of rising costs, District 11 Public Information Officer Becky Giauque said Thursday.
Giauque said that the chip seal material on state routes 164 and 154 will preserve those roads until they are ready to be paved again.
This is the first time the previously paved roads have been chip sealed.
"We are doing more and more chip seals and a treatment called micro-surfacing on roads that have somewhat of a lower volume of average daily traffic," she explained.
While ODOT is seeing a rise in equipment and material costs, at the same time it is experiencing a decline in revenue due to the availability of more fuel efficient vehicles, she said.
"Our revenue stream has been flat for a while but our cost to repair roads continues to go up," she said.
The bulk of ODOT's funding comes from a portion of gas tax revenue received at each fuel pump.
"ODOT is not getting any more money from the gas tax revenue. Internally, we have been trying to find ways to make those dollars stretch ... We want to keep providing the level of service and the product that people expect. By chip sealing and micro-surfacing we are trying to make those pavements last as long as possible," she said.
She went on to say that chip sealing the roads now that are not in dire need of repair allows the department to focus on more roads that are, since the chip seal costs less than asphalt paving.
Specifically, the chip seal process costs about one-third to one-fourth the cost of a conventional asphalt overlay project, she added.
"If a typical pavement life is 20 years, this might buy us two to four more years," she said.
ODOT District 11 is responsible for more than 3,000 miles of roads each year.
The department began preparing for the chip seal work on the state routes in May, with the project on state Route 164 encompassing four miles north of state Route 517 in the county.
ODOT contracted with Melway Paving Co. Inc. of Holmesville for the state Route 164 project at a cost of $258,000.
Work on state Route 154 is being done by American Industrial Services LLC, of Youngstown at a cost of $871,000.
The work will extend from state Route 11 to Rogers, including over three miles of chip seal preservation treatment between Middle Beaver Road and Morris Road, according to information provided by Giauque.
Both projects have an estimated completion date of Oct. 31.
kwhite@mojonews.com