By Pat Jenkins The Dispatch A Frederickson-area street is the guinea pig for new paving that Pierce County officials hope will make roads countywide last longer. County crews will apply seven pavement products along 192nd Street East in August and September to test their' performance and cost-effectiveness over multiple years. A combination of paving, such as aggregate chips and liquid asphalt, will be applied to existing pavement to create a new surface. If they prove durable while lowering road-maintenance costs, the county may begin using one or more of the products more extensively in the future "to improve the preservation of our roads,GÇ¥ 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.GÇ¥ Six new products will be applied twice in 100-foot sections of 192nd between 22nd Avenue East and 38th Avenue East, in addition to one longer section of a chip sealing product that the county already uses. Motorists may notice different pavement colors and textures, officials said. Several products were scheduled to be applied Aug. 18-22, with the rest of the products to be laid Sept. 8-19. Officials said 192nd Street East will remain open during the work, which will be weather-dependent, but "minorGÇ¥ traffic delays are expected. Flaggers will direct traffic through the work zones. During the next seven to eight years, county crews will take periodic core samples of the tested roadway to see how the product is wearing and how it soaks into the road's surface layer. Attention also will be paid to how it does in winter conditions. Road officials will decide next February whether to use any of the products on a larger area as part of the summer 2015 pavement program. Officials said 192nd was selected as the pilot site for the paving because as a collector arterial, nearby residents use it to reach a Canyon Road East, the nearest primary arterial. 192nd also has higher-than-average traffic, including trucks. The street's speed limit is 35 miles-per-hour. Intermountain Slurry Seal Inc. is the contractor for the project, which will cost about $44,000. Instead of using its own road crews to apply the new surfaces, the county wanted to test the products with the help of a contractor that specializes in them in order to ensure quality and consistency, officials said. County road funds will pay for the paving test.
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