The Town Council has approved a professional services agreement with Cactus Asphalt to re-pave Chama and Primrose drives as part of a pilot program (chip seal with a cape seal) to maintain local streets.

During his presentation to Council at its March 15 meeting, Public Works Director Justin Weldy said he believes this is a low-cost solution for some of the community’s roads that have exceeded their useful life, but resources are unavailable to address. If these pilot roads prove successful, Weldy said he hopes to return to the Council to request an expansion of the operation as a way to properly maintain more roads throughout the community.

As noted in the agenda’s background information, Fountain Hills has utilized state, county and city government cooperation purchasing agreement contracts to take advantage of competitive pricing received by other municipalities. In this instance, Cactus Asphalt has agreed to extend contract pricing it has with Pinal County to Fountain Hills.

“In order to effectively utilize the Town’s limited street maintenance budget, staff is proposing a pilot program that outlines the steps needed to preserve the current pavement condition on two local street segments,” the background statement continues. “…The proposed pilot program has been utilized by the City of Glendale, the Town of Florence and other county and municipal governments with favorable results on streets of similar condition [to Chama and Primrose].”

The estimated cost for reconstruction of these segments is between $600,000 and $900,000, while the cost for the proposed chip seal with cape seal is $209,473.72.

“As the name suggests, this treatment consists of two preventative maintenance applications; a chip seal overcoated with a slurry seal,” continues the background information. “A chip seal is an application of small angular rock (chips)…embedded into a thick application of asphalt emulsion.

“Most chip seals incorporate polymer modified binders. The chip seal with a cape seal treatment will maintain a pavement which needs to be reconstructed and can extend the service life of pavement for up to eight to 10 years.”

Coming in at a fraction of the cost to reconstruct segments of road, Weldy said that this pilot program could lead to big savings and stretching road maintenance dollars further than anticipated.

“The cost savings resulting from the less costly chip seal with cape seal, coupled with extending the life of these roads for eight to 10 years, will have an enormous positive impact on the Town’s roadway budget, allowing the Town to treat our roadways and catch up on our current deficiencies, and increase the overall pavement condition index of our roadway network,” the presentation concluded.

Councilmember Sharron Grzybowski moved to approve the professional service agreement with Cactus Asphalt and Gerry Friedel seconded before unanimous approval (7-0).