Quote:
Originally Posted by kdogg2077
They tarred and chipped my parents road. It drives me crazy but it does harden and settle after a few weeks. It will never give you the same cornering confidence that nice pavement does though.
I don't get the reasoning behind tarring and chipping a road. It only lasts a few months and it will need work again next year. What a waste.
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I wonder if there are different "formulas" they use for this. Around here, chipseal tends to hold up pretty well. My first ride after getting my bike in 2010 happened to be on a freshly chipsealed road. There are a few patches where it looks like it didn't stick to the old surface well and came off, but the vast majority of it doesn't seem much different from how it was a month after they put it down.
The reason they do it is because it's cheap. They patch and clean up the existing road to get it mostly even, spray some tar down, and drop gravel on it. They might come back and clean off the excess and spray down another layer of tar. It's very little, simple labor, using simple materials and tools. Compared to all the machinery and work needed to lay down new asphalt, I'm sure they're saving a ton of money. But like you said, if it's costing them 1/2 as much and they're doing it 3x as often, they're not actually saving money.
I do hate the surface though. I can watch the energy usage jump up when I go from asphalt to chipseal. I'm sure it puts more wear on your tires. And it's just annoyingly loud to drive on. They're saving money by passing costs on to the drivers. Keep that in mind for city council meetings and such.