my commute route has been tarred and feathered

[subxero]

Well not feathered, but tarred and chipped

On my way to work this morning I had the pleasure of finding out for some unknown reason the county? state? who ever decided to tar and chip a perfectly nice paved road. This is my preferred route to work so i'm a little annoyed especially because they also just put down brand new pavement on another section of my commute route which is pure bliss.

might be enough to make me take another way to work

Anyone else live in rural dumbville where they tar and chip roads, let alone ones that are paved already?

[adouglas]

Ugh. I HATE that stuff.

Avoid for a few weeks at least. Also, be aware that the loose gravel will tend to congregate at T intersections, right at the junction of the T where cars don't roll over it.

[Alex]

Chipseal is more common than not, all over California. On more heavily used roads, it gets smoothed out soon enough so it isn't much of a problem. But elsewhere, it makes for a crappy surface for months or longer. Always frustrating right when it's applied on a fun motorcycling route.

[Racer x]

Nothing like being in a bicycle race in the heat of summer and coming onto miles of fresh tar chip.

[csmith12]

They did that to my road about a year ago. It sucks at first, but gets better with traffic pounding the gravel down into the tar. Your a dirt rider, don't let it go to your head too much.

[capt_bugaloo]

Yeah, I find it's a great surface... After about a year.

[DEFY]

They do this at my mom's house all the time. Sucks cause then all the rocks get pushed into her grass and mowing the front is like listening to a broken record.

[VaFish]

Originally Posted by capt_bugaloo

Yeah, I find it's a great surface... After about a year.

It gets great just in time for them to put another layer down.

[Geezer-60]

Just had a piece of my commute done and there is a roundabout in the middle of it. Looks like a beach around the edges. Don't like that stuff at all.

[cadd]

I had no idea what you guys were talking about. Had to do the Google for this one. And still have no idea what it is! I've never experienced it before. But from looking at pics, I can tell it kinda sucks big time!

[VaFish]

Originally Posted by cadd

I had no idea what you guys were talking about. Had to do the Google for this one. And still have no idea what it is! I've never experienced it before. But from looking at pics, I can tell it kinda sucks big time!

It's a method of road paving, they spray down a layer of tar, then spread rock chips on top of it. Usually leaving a loose layer of rock chips for cars to pack down. Sometimes they will use a roller and compact the chips then come back a few days later with a street sweeper to reclaim the loose chips.

Around here they use a similar method to fill potholes. They just did this on one of my local 2 lane roads, so you go flying down the road and every place there used to be a pot hole now has a bunch of loose gravel.

[LittleRedNinjette]

They did that on a couple of the side roads around me. Didn't find out till i went that way for something... Nice long road too... I hate the crap too.

[InvisiBill]

Dumptar & Droprox

They're doing this to a bunch of roads here too. At least now they're coming back a couple weeks later and putting down another layer of tar (or some other type of sealant), which seems to make it slightly less bad. Out in the country, they just sweep the extra gravel off the side and it becomes the shoulder. However, they put the chipseal all the way into the center of town, and it seems they didn't even make an attempt to clean up the excess. For several weeks, there were piles of gravel lining the street. I'm sure it was great when that rainstorm washed it down the drains...

Driving the Volt has pointed out just how noisy and inefficient chipseal is. It's getting harder to do around here, but I'll actually take a slightly longer route to avoid it if possible.

The only worse thing is when they use chipseal to fix cracks in the road, resulting in gravelly speedbumps.

In related news... #PureMichigan

PIC OF THE DAY: This photo of a road that has been sealed - a lot, has been trending on social media with the caption "Pure Michigan road fix." Nick Bouma tells us he took the photo in Hudsonville, MI outside of Grand Rapids.

[csmith12]

^^^ WTF!!!! lol

[subxero]

^ x2

[LittleRedNinjette]

Drawing a maze???

[csmith12]

Originally Posted by LittleRedNinjette

Drawing a maze???

Advanced Tron lightcycles or a really good game of snake.

[LittleRedNinjette]

Crap, why didn't i think of snake?!

[adouglas]

Originally Posted by InvisiBill

Insert "tar" and replace with "road" in the appropriate places.

[InvisiBill]

Added the quote to help explain it.

I have a hard time believing all those tarsnakes are covering actual cracks in the road, considering you can see other small cracks between them that aren't covered. On the other hand, I live in MI, so I can believe there would be that many cracks that needed covering (there are a number of comments saying it looks too nice to be a MI road).

One of the comments suggested that they might have been just trying to use up the last of the tar at the end of the day. And posted this pic to go along with that theory.

[subxero]

makes me think of a Zebra

[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.

[InvisiBill]

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.

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.

[csmith12]

This thread has funny timing. I had a knock on my door this AM from the road dept. They are going to blacktop over the chipseal they just laid down last year. I doubt my complaints had anything to do with it, but I am glad this stuff is going to be gone soon.

[choneofakind]

Tar snakes also do a great job of making your front end feel all wavy when you turn over them

I dislike tar'n'chip. I get that all the time out in the country of NW Ohio. I go for bicycle rides and we'll ride the stuff for miles and miles. All it does is make your manhood numb, as well as your toes, fingers, buttcheeks, everything. Shifting weight around helps temporarily, but you can only resist the buzz for so long.