Pierce County will apply seven pavement products along 192nd Street East in Frederickson in August and September to test the products’ performance and cost effectiveness over multiple years.

Pavement products are used to extend the life of county roads. A combination of materials, such as aggregate chips and liquid asphalt, are applied to existing roadway to create a new surface layer. Pierce County may decide to begin using one or more of the products in the future if they work well on Pierce County roads while lowering costs.

“This pilot will allow Pierce County to assess its options to improve the preservation of our roads,” said Bruce Wagner, Public Works and Utilities road maintenance manager. “This is one way we are working to improve our services and find ways to reduce costs.”

Six new products will be applied twice in 100-foot sections along 192nd Street East between 22nd Avenue East and 38th Avenue East, in addition to one longer section of Pierce County’s existing chip sealing product. Motorists may notice different pavement colors and textures in the pilot area. Several products will be applied Aug. 18 to Aug. 22, with the rest of the products being applied Sept. 8 to Sept. 19. The road will remain open, although minor delays are expected. Flaggers will be onsite to direct traffic through the work zones. The work is weather dependent.

Pierce County will evaluate how the products age over a seven to eight-year period, take periodic core samples to see how the product is wearing and how it soaks into the road’s surface layer, and assess how well it performs in winter conditions. The department will decide in February 2015 if it wants to use any of the products on a larger area as part of its summer 2015 pavement program.

192nd Street East was selected because it is a collector arterial, which means nearby residents use this road to reach a primary arterial. In this case, the primary arterial is Canyon Road East. 192nd Street East also has higher than average traffic, and higher than average truck traffic. The speed limit is 35 miles-per-hour.

Intermountain Slurry Seal, Inc. is the contractor. While Pierce County road crews do apply certain types of pavement products on county roads, Pierce County wanted to test the new products using a contractor that specializes in those products to ensure quality and consistency. The section of Pierce County’s existing product will be applied by Pierce County road crews.

The work along 192nd Street East will cost approximately $44,000. The pilot is being paid for using Pierce County Road Funds. The pilot page is available at www.piercecountywa.org/pavement.