Reseals
Why reseal?
The seal on a road is like paint on a house - it keeps water out of the structure underneath. Like paint, the seal breaks down over time and starts to let water in. When the surface of a street starts to break down it is time to reseal.
The ideal time to reseal is just before the seal fails, so the road may still look to be in good condition. Streets are resurfaced with a chip seal except where the Council engineer has reason to believe a different surface type is required.
What is the chip seal process?
- Minor repairs are carried out prior to resealing.
- Residents in the street are advised about a week before work begins.
- Hot bitumen is sprayed, and stone sealing chips are spread and rolled in.
- Excess sealing chips are swept away, and road marking is reinstated.
- As many as three additional sweeps may follow in the next six months.
Programme of work
A list of roads which require resealing is prepared every three years. There are more roads that require resealing than there is funding available to do them. Council therefore must assess which road surfaces are more likely to fail than others and reseal these roads as a priority. Where possible we try to reseal as many roads as we can that require resealing in each area in the same year to keep establishment costs to a minimum.
The priority is set based on the hierarchy classification of the road, the condition of the surface, and consideration of safety and accessibility issues.
