Chip sealing: Protecting your pavement investment.
Chip sealing (also known as chip and seal) extends the life of your asphalt with an extremely durable layer of hot oil combined with a fine aggregate cover. The chip seal process is endorsed by the Minnesota Department of Transportation to increase the life of an asphalt surface. A chip seal gives you a pristine, tough new wear surface that also enhances skid resistance. Proper chip seal applications and programs are proven to double or triple the life of the asphalt roads and surfaces. Allied recommends that chip sealing should be administered on a five to seven year scheduled asphalt maintenance cycle.
The chip seal process
- Cleaning: All surfaces are thoroughly swept and cleaned for complete adhesion.
- Application: The hot oil emulsion is sprayed onto the surface using computerized rate of control technology. Immediately following the emulsion application, the aggregate material is applied evenly using computerized chip spreaders to ensure a proper application rate. The aggregate is then rolled into the oil with pneumatic rubber tire rollers.
- Cleanup: After the surface has properly cured and set, any excess chips are swept from the area. The curing and cleanup phase can vary. State highways and county roads, when using hot polymerized oils, can be swept the day following the application. Highly traveled municipal arterial streets can be swept within a couple of days of application. Residential streets are swept a few weeks following application, and parking lots are typically swept four to eight weeks following the chip seal process. Allied crews have resurfaced hundreds of city streets each year without shutting them down.
All chip seal applications experience tracking of the excess aggregate and bleeding of the oil. Chip seal areas are considered to be a “live” surface and are self-healing. Areas that bleed will recover when the temperature become cooler. Most of the aggregate tracking will be resolved after the pickup sweep. Some partially-embedded aggregate will continue to work loose after the initial sweep. These partially embedded rocks will work their way out of the chip seal in the fall and winter months. This excess aggregate can be cleaned up with an additional sweeping in the Spring. Loosening aggregate can and will take place throughout the life of the chip seal.
