Cyndi from Lakewood writes, “What's driving you crazy? We own a motorcycle and while riding in our neighborhood in Lakewood and in the mountains near Georgetown, we encounter many cracks that have been filled with tar. The tar, even after being cured, is extremely slippery and it's difficult to avoid all the tar filled cracks. We find our motorcycle constantly slipping. What can be done about this dangerous situation?”
That tar that you are trying not to ride over, Cyndi, is commonly known as crack seal. The City of Lakewood, Clear Creek County and most other municipalities use it to prolong the life of their roadways. According to the website roadresource.org, sealing roadway cracks in this way can extends a pavement’s life by 3 to 5 years.
The crack seal simply limits moisture from intruding into the subgrade of the roadway. The material is made up of crumb rubber and emulsified asphalt for flexibility due to the expansion and contraction of asphalt surfaces. It is applied hot to create a bond with the existing pavement. Traffic engineers told me, our vicious freeze thaw cycles in Colorado make it critically important to keep moisture out of the roadway cracks and from infiltrating the asphalt because that causes expansion and contraction of the asphalt, which leads to asphalt failure, also known as potholes.
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I talked to Scott Shafer, Road & Bridge Superintendent for the Town of Georgetown. He told me Clear Creek County used crack seal to fill numerous cracks on Alvarado Road from the north side of the lake to Lawson.
“I ride a motorcycle and it can be slippery. They put down 4-inch-wide paths of seal so you just have to be extra cautious when going over it,” Shafer said.
I asked the City of Lakewood if there is a way to make the crack seal less slippery.
I was told, “This industry-standard crack seal product does not produce a slick surface; however, it does soften and become more malleable in hotter temperatures through the summer months.”
Shafer told me, most of the time riders complain about crack seal after it is freshly installed because when some dirt gets on it, the seal becomes less slippery. He added that when sand is spread on the roads this winter, the seal should become even less slippery.
Both cities told me, crack seal is the most cost effective way to prevent the failure of thousands of linear feet of cracks. They said the alternative of leaving cracks unfilled leads to more costly repairs to the roadway later including full replacement of the asphalt.
“This really is a summertime issue and shouldn’t be a problem now,” Shafer said.
Denver7 Traffic Expert Jayson Luber says he has been covering Denver-metro traffic since Ben-Hur was driving a chariot. (We believe the actual number is over 25 years.) He's obsessed with letting viewers know what's happening on their drive and the best way to avoid the problems that spring up. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or listen to his award winning Driving You Crazy podcast on any podcast app including iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Podbean, or YouTube.
