Chip sealing a a highway median

Aug 16, 2023 10:54 PM

AlphaSaber

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From an old project, the median of the highway was to be chip sealed as part of a perpetuation project. Normally the stone is grey, but in this case the local municipality paid to have the stone be red for visual contrast. Here the tack truck is spreading the emulsified asphalt (essentially a specific mix of oil and water) ahead of the chip spreader.

Next is the chip spreader and dump truck to spread the chips. The truck is being pulled by the spreader to prevent it from bumping the spreader and causing issues with the thickness of the chips being spread. Also there's an inlet covered up to keep the oil and chips out of a nearby creek.

And touch ups around signs in the median. After applying the chips they are rolled with the pneumatic roller in the background and then if it was open to traffic it would have traffic run over it for a week to set the chips into the oil and bind the chip seal to the asphalt below. Once the week is up they would come back and sweep the chip seal to remove any loose chips and replace the pavement markings.

road_construction

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Which guy is Chip?

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Mmm chips

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

This could be grass.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Cool. How long's it last?

3 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Sealing a median. Tel me, are there also drainage issues in this area?

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

No there were no drainage issues. The median pavement was in good condition and this work was carryover because the contractor didn't have enough time the year prior to place the chip seal and have it set before the weather turned and temperatures prevented the emulsified asphalt from curing.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Yes, I am Chip. I am available to seal your highway, and my rates are reasonable

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

In my old neighborhood we used to “reallocate” the loose gravel after a chip sealing to fill in the worn spots of our extra parking spot. It would build up in the gutters and on the outsides of the corners.

3 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

How did you pick it up? Broom?

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

More a floor than a sealing

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Is Chip the only one who does it?

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I've never seen a chip-sealed highway. In my neck of the woods that's only for the real rural roads, like the one i lived on. I can only imagine the number of cracked windshields on a highway

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

That truck's brakes need adjusting

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

If you mean the dump trucks' brakes, no they don't, the spreader hooks on to a hitch on the back of the truck and pulls it along. All the truck driver does is follow the operator's signals to raise and lower the bed.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

/whoosh

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Is the width of the median aligned to the chip spreader, or is the chip spreader aligned to the median? I must know which is the chicken and which the egg

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Interesting you have a whole separate chip spreading machine. Here in NZ, at least where I work, we have spreaders that clip on the back of chip trucks and spread the chip that way. Still have separate spray tankers for the emulsion.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

These guys do a much better job:

3 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 2

As per my home owners group, much to expensive to do in our place.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

is this not asphalt paving and not chip stone sealing?

3 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Poetry Slam.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

And not a towel in sight...

3 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Good News then, we had double the papers in far more pixels on site too.

3 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Not the Vogons we were expecting.

3 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I despise this stuff. The chips cause dings in the paint, get into my disc brakes, and the oil is slung on to quarter panels by the tires.

3 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Don’t forget the broken windshields.

3 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Don't forget about tracking it inside.

3 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Neat

3 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 1

That’s a cool green

3 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Because fuck trees and bushes I guess right lol

3 years ago | Likes 17 Dislikes 10

No, because the 30 year old asphalt in the median was in good enough shape that the money couldn't be justified to change the median.

3 years ago | Likes 19 Dislikes 4

We all want a utopia but no one ever thinks about the logistics of getting it smh. Can't Thanos snap infrastructure into new infrastructure

3 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 3

Given that they require maintenance to avoid growing into the street, which is an ongoing budget line item... yeah.

3 years ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 5

But I love the "T" shaped trees

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I'm pretty sure they could have at least gotten away with some wild grasses and wildflowers

3 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 6

[deleted]

[deleted]

3 years ago (deleted Aug 17, 2023 3:58 PM) | Likes 0 Dislikes 0

Chocolate chips?

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I can smell this video.

3 years ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 1

Looks expensive

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Not all the Houston area but large portions do grass & trees instead. Ignoring the rest of the environmentap benefits; it keeps the heat down.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

What’s the point of a chip seal? It’s not something that would be done on a roadway, right?

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

A chip seal is a cheap and effective means to restore friction to a driving surface that may not necessarily be in poor enough condition to need a mill to come in and remove the top 2 inches of asphalt. Typically the chip seals are used on county and city roads to extend their life, not so much on state or interstates due to safety concerns with high speed traffic on what amounts to pea gravel.

3 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 1

The stone is normally red but they paid for it to be red? Seems like they wasted money.

3 years ago | Likes 66 Dislikes 3

Would you expect anything else from goverment?

3 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 23

Thanks for pointing my mistake out, it should have read grey, and I've fixed it.

3 years ago | Likes 61 Dislikes 0

Swedish highways are often paved with red asphalt, the filler being locally sourced porphyry rock. It's the hardest filler used here and so lasts longer, but in summer it gets polished by the tyres and becomes pretty slick when wet. In winter, metal spiked tyres scratch the surface on the top layer of gravel and the grip returns.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Red grey is a nice colour

3 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

I was really confused!

3 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

It could easily be broken bricks, so industrial waste and perhaps a minimal upcharge for making sure the aggregate is all the same size.

3 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I come from a part of the US where tons of bricks are manufactured so we use waste bricks frequently

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Brick is porous, crumbly and breaks into sharp shards. Seems like particularly bad choice of material for road filling. But perhaps things are done differently in the States? Please chime in, @OP.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

No, this was quarried stone, virgin aggregate, not reprocessed material. Here is the stockpile that the contractor delivered prior to starting the work so they only needed 3 trucks running 10 minute round trips vs hour plus if they pulled from the source. The stone had to meet listed specifications - wear, percent with 2+ fractured faces, and a gradation. (1/2)

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

(2/2) To contrast that with this recycled 1.25 inch Base Aggregate made out of recycled concrete. But even this it generally better than pure virgin base aggregate because the concrete had to previously meet our specifications, which means that there is now real variability to what is being processed. But again, this material has to meet our specifications so that water can drain out and the material can support the road above it.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

That is true, though i don't think cars are intended to drive on the median, typically.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Ok, re-read the text and realised that it's about filling the median, not the roadway. I couldn't tell from the video, the road worked on is the same level as the surrounding lanes. Either way, why pave the median in the first place? Why not simply an elevated median covered with soil and grass and finished with a curb?

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

The highway is a rural to urban transition, there are alot of houses and businesses on either side of it, so a traditional grassed median with crossovers for driveways wouldn't really work. Additionally, safety is a concern, this stretch of highway sees an average of 11,200 vehicles daily, IH-39 about 30 minutes east sees about 14,600 vehicles. Finally, this was how they laid out roads for this condition when it was built in the late 80s.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Tar and fkn chip? Is your city council kidding? There is literally no excuse to be this cheap in 2023.

3 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 3

In my country (New Zealand) almost all our roads are tar and fkn chip. It's all we can afford. Makes falling off a motorcycle kinda interesting.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

My guess is because it’s a median this is just a way to avoid mowing grass, pave over it and make the stroad even worse.

3 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 1

Close, this highway is in a rural to urban transition area and has alot of houses and businesses on either side, hence the traversable median. The chip seal was closer to painting the median red without using paint. This was closer to seal coating a driveway or parking lot.

3 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

its extra hard wearing and cheaper, good for some places but downsides are very loud road noice and harder on tyres, neither of which the council cares about

3 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 2

They put that corner spot just nice :)

3 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

As long as they do it quickly. They've been ripping up asphalt and paving in front of my house for a week now and my dog is having difficulty with it. The other dog doesn't care; you can hear her drinking in the background at one point.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

This is the same old sweetheart who was on the FP recently. Sometimes life is scary, sometimes it's chill. /gallery/EPciuI9

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Lol "Once the week is up they would come back and sweep the chip seal to remove any loose chips". Yeah, not here, they just leave it and it goes everywhere.

3 years ago | Likes 43 Dislikes 2

You must live in PA

3 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

The land of eternal road work.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Close, Ohio.

3 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Here in Central Ontario they leave the extra chip for the snow plow to redistribute onto your lawn.

3 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

It's misery on a bicycle. They pull this shit on one of the biggest bike routes outside of Durango.

3 years ago | Likes 15 Dislikes 0

Yup. Same here in The Netherlands. Its fucked up, and considering a lot of our cycling paths are shared with scooters and mopeds, fairly dangerous aswell.

3 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

I wonder if people are aware that entire roads are different colors in different parts of the US? Due to local color of rack and materials. Take Illinois for example north Illinois it is it is gray, south it is red. Wyoming has this as well.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Concrete is different colors too.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

How they did it many millennia ago 😏

3 years ago | Likes 62 Dislikes 0

Channel 9 news theme for any aussies

3 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

What we've got here is...

3 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

I'm old enough to have seen this.

3 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Anyone born after movies are recorded could see them

3 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 1

Those of us who saw it for real know the machine and prisoners move a lot slower than Cool Hand Luke depicted, and the guards don't strike the prisoners.

3 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Yeah, but it takes 50 hard boiled eggs per person to fuel that kind of work.

3 years ago | Likes 39 Dislikes 0

Why'd ya have to say 50?

3 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

You’re dealing a cool hand, Luke!

3 years ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

Same in bama now … time marches slowly …

3 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I can never tell if this website is somehow getting words im saying out loud from like google or something and putting it into my front page? or if its just kind of like a thing that happens because there's lots of x thing is happening and it becomes popular (in this case chip sealing). I was talking about chip sealing and lo and behold here it is on the front page. this happens a lot and its creepy. or am I just that predictable?

3 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

I mean, maybe there's just a huge variety of posts happening, and the algorithm picks out words and matches my front page to the post that somebody makes. thats how i would do it if I wanted more eyes available to advertisements.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Just a note about chip sealing to the algorithm: I dont give a shit about chip sealing. Clearly somebody does though or they wouldnt have upvoted this. Strange world we live in.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Doesn't everyone see the same fp on Imgur? I thought it was all about the votes? Anyone here with actual knowledge on this, please comment.

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

thats kind of a theory I have. maybe the FP looks different for individuals based on region/advertising keywording/demographics etc. I mean they may salt in trending major posts, but I dunno. It just seems weird to me how spot on some of the posts are. the delay between things I say or click on in YT and it showing up in imgur is always within 12 hours

3 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0