State's road-tarring project in jeopardy

e-mail this story print this story

_____Top stories_____

Now she can see cracks and ruts again and vehicles avoid some portions of it "because they never know what they're going to hit."

They are called tar and gravel roads, a mixture of sprayed asphalt and rolled stone. For decades, the paving process has allowed South Carolina to maintain 25,000 miles of secondary roads when money was too tight to pay for regular resurfacing.

But a rash of complaints about damage to cars from the process and of road problems untouched by such paving has left state transportation officials wondering whether to scrap it.

And if they do, they wonder what — if anything — can be used to replace it. The state's secondary roads haven't seen regular resurfacing in four years because of budget cuts.

"It just seems like that program is not working as good as engineers would like to tell you or as good as the people who actually do the work say," said John "Moot" Truluck, a member of the state Department of Transportation Commission who has received many complaints.

"We've got to do a better job if we're going to spend the public's money."

Sen. Gerald Malloy of Hartsville, a member of the Senate Transportation Committee, said he also has heard complaints.

"I always think that patchwork is not the best therapy," he said. "It would be our hope that we could surface roads in a way that would be safe for our citizens. Sometimes you can pay now or pay later, and this appears to be one of those circumstances."

Truluck, from Lake City, raised the issue at a recent Department of Transportation board meeting. State highway engineers had already notified contractors that future tar and gravel paving was on hold because of the complaints.

Along Jordan Road in Greenville County, residents and business owners were steamed as well. The road was paved last year with the tar and gravel process, what engineers call "chip seal."

Holes in the road, however, weren't patched first and loose stone was left afterward, denting cars and cracking windshields.

"It's a waste of taxpayers money," said Floyd Mason, 55, a resident near the road.

Department of Transportation Commission member Bud Turner, representing Greenville, said the state has to assume some of the responsibility for the problems.

"I'm not sure DOT did the inspection that they should have done," he said.

State engineers said the process is used to extend the life of the road at a third of the cost of regular resurfacing. That's especially critical because of the lack of money for maintaining secondary roads.

To apply chip seal, contractors first spray asphalt on the roads. Then stones are layered on top and rolled into the mixture. Sometimes another layer is applied of asphalt and gravel. If done right, engineers said, the stones are pressed into the asphalt and the contractor sweeps away any loose rock afterward.

The resulting road is considered more pliable than regular roads, making them more resistant to damage from trucks.

But too much loose stone has angered motorists, commissioners said, while residents have been upset that potholes and other problems with the roads were unrepaired by the process.

"There have even been situations where it is alleged those loose rocks caused cars to go out of control," Truluck said.

Contractors have pleaded with commissioners not to stop the process. Officials are still trying to decide what to do.

"I think the jury is still out," said Tee Hooper of Greenville, who chairs the Department of Transportation board.

Truluck said while the process has worked well for years, he believes the state's money could be better spent on quality paving, even if it doesn't stretch as far.

Other commissioners fear that with scant road funding, stopping the tar and gravel process may end the only method of maintaining the roads.

"I'd rather have chip seal spread farther to help out on these roads than the road to sit there and continue to deteriorate," Turner said.

Residents also have mixed feelings.

"This can't be the best alternative," Edwards said. "Asphalt's got to be cheaper because it looks like they'd be doing more maintenance on these kind of roads."

Bud Howard, 62, owner of Jordan Processing Plant on Jordan Road, said motorists could avoid damaging their cars if they travel the speed limit. He said he has no problems with the road.

Jimmy Cox, 56, a Milford Church Road resident who travels Jordan Road, remembers as a child seeing chain gangs apply tar and gravel.

He'd rather see asphalt but said the tar and gravel is okay as long as people drive far enough away from the person in front.

"I always stay four or five car lengths behind," he said. "I don't follow right up. Of course, you're going to have gravel come back on your car. When you drive right up on, you've got to expect to have glass or something busted out."