Madison, In. — Indiana Department of Transportation maintenance crews plan to chip seal the 7¼-mile segment of State Road 56 from just beyond Madison’s east limits to Shirks Hollow Road at Brooksburg, weather permitting, on Monday, July 2. Flaggers will direct traffic around pavement preservation operations on the scenic highway between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
INDOT’s current schedule calls for a fog seal to be applied on Thursday, July 12.
Chip seals coat the existing pavement with liquid asphalt—sealing cracks and protecting the roadbed from harmful ultraviolet rays. This extends service life and lowers maintenance costs. Small chips of limestone are used to cover the asphalt—choking it from spraying vehicles or sticking to tires. The aggregate chips also restore surface friction for improved skid resistance and driver safety.
Fog seals are light sprays of liquid asphalt that lock in the stone and further overcoat the highway with sealant protection.
These chip and fog seals are extremely cost-effective. Experience shows that every $1 spent on these kinds of surface treatments saves $6 to $14 in taxpayer expenditures “down the road”.
