On July 11, depending on the weather, the Seattle Department of Transportation street maintenance crews will begin resealing approximately 38 miles of surface streets in the West Seattle, Northgate and Northeast Seattle neighborhoods with a process called chip sealing.
Renewing the chip seal surface preserves the condition of the streets and creates a highly skid-resistant surface preventing water penetration of the road's subsurface. The process helps limit road damage, such as potholes, from occurring.
Approximately 25 percent of Seattle's residential streets have chip sealed surfaces. Preparation for summer chip sealing began this spring. Transportation crews have already repaired cracks and other roadway damage in the streets scheduled for resurfacing.
Chip sealing is cost effective and fast; crews can resurface up to several miles of roadway in a day's time. The city has been chip sealing streets since 1967, converting dirt and gravel non-arterial streets to chip seal in order to cut down on dust and other pollution and improve air quality. Chip seal surfaces are typically renewed every 10 years. The West Seattle grid was last chip sealed in 1998.
Notification of upcoming work in the form of door hangers went out to area residents and businesses. "No Parking" signs will be placed on streets up to 24 hours in advance. Residents should park out of the area to be resurfaced to prevent the chance of any chip seal residue getting on their vehicles and to help workers finish as quickly as possible.
Because the chip seal process involves the application of a fast-drying emulsion into which chipped rocks are compacted, the new surface can be driven on almost immediately, but drivers are asked to limit their speed to 10 miles per hour for the first few days following the resurfacing to allow for the rocks to set. Mechanical street sweepers will remove the loose rock several days following the chip seal operation (sweeping might be postponed during extremely hot weather).
Typical work hours will be from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday, with traffic restrictions in place from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Some inconvenience can be expected, however, Seattle Transportation will make every effort to minimize disruptions.
