A Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) maintenance service contractor will begin in the second week of July to work on pavement preservation on I-24 and I-59 in Dade County. Work will be done exclusively at night. No work that interferes with traffic or lane closures will take place on weekdays between the hours of 6 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Georgia DOT has just awarded a service maintenance contract to REMAC Inc. to perform what is called “fog crack sealing” and filling on the two interstates. Work is scheduled to begin on Sunday, July 9. It is expected to take two months to complete.
A fog seal is an application of a specially formulated asphalt emulsion (a thin liquid oil) to an existing asphalt pavement surface. A fog seal gets its name from its spray application, sometimes referred to as “fogging.”
As asphalt pavement ages and is subjected to traffic loads, it oxidizes and cracks develop in the surface due in part to the pavement becoming more brittle. Fog seal applications serve to seal narrow cracks, slightly restore lost flexibility to the pavement surface, provide a deep, rich black pavement surface color, and most importantly help preserve the underlying pavement structure. As part of the GDOT pavement preservation program, crack sealing helps to reduce pavement deterioration by restricting water penetration into underlying base and sub-base layers.
This restriction helps to maintain pavement structural capacity and limits future degradation. Sealing cracks and joints in pavements thus extends the service life of the highway surface and pavement.
“This maintenance service contract is a good example of the benefits of suitable funding for preventive maintenance investment in northwest Georgia. It is just the beginning,” said DeWayne Comer, district engineer at the GDOT office in Cartersville.
Funding for this and similar maintenance service contracts comes from the new annual sustainable routine maintenance investment provided by the Georgia Transportation Funding Act (TFA) of 2015. In their 2015 legislative session, Georgia lawmakers addressed the state’s critical transportation infrastructure needs with passage of House Bill 170, Georgia’s transportation funding bill.
TFA is expected to generate an estimated $870 million in the first fiscal year. This sustained annual revenue will be used to fund much-needed routine maintenance and capital improvements.
For general information about the Transportation Funding Act of 2015, visit www.GAroads.org
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