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PennDOT is experiencing funding problems due to the reduced ability of gas tax revenues to keep up with construction needs.
While it awaits long-term solutions from a newly formed Transportation Revenue Options Commission, the department is extending the money that is available with tactics like "asset preservation," according to Vince Greenland, District 9 assistant district executive, who spoke this week at PennDOT's annual "outreach" to municipal officials.
The department's guidelines for managing asphalt pavement are designed to postpone for as long as possible the steep decline of pavement condition that leads to the need for expensive resurfacing -- and eventually reconstruction -- by performing inexpensive maintenance at the right times, according to Greenland.
That includes sealing cracks three to five years after a major renewal, he said.
In recent times, it also includes "thin hot mix overlays" for major highways, in place of traditional resurfacing, he said.
The technique has proven to work on a pilot project on Route 22 in Harrisburg, which is still in good shape after almost eight years, Greenland said.
The 1-inch overlay costs about 30% as much as standard resurfacing, which means a savings of $2.1 million for a typical 5-mile, two-lane project, he said.
The thin overlay doesn't have "quite the length of service life," and there is the potential for underlying cracks to "reflect" on the surface, which makes "proper base repair ... a must," but the savings make it worthwhile, according to Greenland.
District 9 has completed six thin overlay projects so far, including on I-99 and Route 22/764 in Blair County, I-99 in Bedford County and Route 22 in Cambria County, Greenland said.
It has one additional project planned, also on Route 22 in Cambria County, he said.
"You'll see it more and more," Greenland said.
PennDOT is also using a modern technique on low-travel rural roads that are in "significant base failure."
With full depth reclamation, a "reclaimer" grinds up the existing pavement structure to a depth twice the thickness of the existing asphalt; then that rubble is graded and rolled; then the reclaimer comes through again, regrinding and adding a cement and water mix; then the material is regraded and recompacted, then the road is resurfaced with asphalt, according to Greenland and online information.
Full depth reconstruction is only 20% as expensive as reconstruction, so for a typical 5-mile project, the savings would be $12 million, according to Greenland.
District 9 has completed nine FDR projects so far, including Tower and Ott roads in Cambria County, Riddlemoser Road in Bedford County and Blacklog Valley Road and Petersburg Pike in Huntingdon County.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.