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School’S Out And Reseals Are In

School holidays may be the opportunity for children to enjoy story time at a municipal library, participate in an art workshop at the gallery or even visit the movies, but it’s also an opportunity for council contractors to undertake road reseals.

By Latrobe City Council - 21st April 2009 - Back to News

During these holidays, road reaseals have been undertaken outside some local schools such as in Traralgon where sections of Stockdale Road and Liddiard Road each received attention last week.

Latrobe City’s deputy mayor, Cr Kellie O’Callaghan, said school holidays are the perfect time to undertake work outside schools so there is minimum inconvenience to pupils, parents and teachers.

"The reseal process involves heavy machinery and temporary road closures, so it makes sense if possible to undertake work outside schools when they aren’t being used," Cr O’Callaghan said.

School frontages are just a part of the reseal program which this financial year will see a $4.25 million investment by council in preventative maintenance. Yet resealing the municipality's roads through the reseal program is actually saving millions of dollars of ratepayers’ money.

Latrobe City’s coordinator infrastructure maintenance, Richard Brammall, said it is common for citizens to ask why their road is being resealed when there are no potholes.

"Reseals are a preventative maintenance treatment, such as painting the exterior walls of a house. Responsible home owners would not wait for the paint to peel and the weatherboards to rot before they repaint the house. Similarly, Latrobe City should not wait until the road becomes potholed and cracked before resealing or resurfacing the road, or waiting for faults to develop. The cost of fixing roads once faults develop is expensive," Mr Brammall explained.

"The cost of not doing the maintenance would minimally be four or five times what council expends annually in its road budget."

Mr Brammall said that it is necessary to reseal at an average frequency of ten years as the bituminous wearing surface became porous, brittle, and sometimes slippery if preventative maintenance isn't done.

"The seal forms a waterproof barrier which prevents the gravel and subgrade underneath from becoming wet. Due to ultraviolet radiation and aging, the bitumen in the seal over a period of time becomes brittle and cracks. Minute cracks then allow water to seep through the road pavement, into the subsurface, and then potholes and soft spots form in the road.

"Experience has shown that once the road pavement becomes saturated, heavy vehicles can cause considerable damage to a road pavement in a very short period of time.

"Road pavements that have been allowed to deteriorate do not provide a smooth ride like a well-maintained road surface. The seal also provides a skid resistant surface for vehicles to travel on. Road surfaces become polished and slippery over a period of time, particularly in wet weather, due to the continuous action of vehicle tyres on the aggregate, so there is a significant contribution made towards road safety from road reseal programs."

This present year, Latrobe City will reseal 575,000 square metres through its contractor Boral Asphalt.

"Our aim is obviously to keep the road surface in tip-top condition on an ongoing basis, thus avoiding having to do costly repairs," Mr Brammall added.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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