Lake County supervisors direct staff to prepare change order to add asphalt to Cobb-area roads

Interim Public Works Director Lars Ewing told the Lake County Board of Supervisors that he paused parts of the Cobb Area Road Rehabilitation Project after residents raised concerns about using double chip seal on several steep, low-speed roads.

Ewing said construction began this summer after the board approved plans in July 2024 and the county awarded the contract to Argonaut Constructors in April 2025. "I paused the contract after the first layer of chips was were placed so that we could reevaluate," Ewing said, citing conversations with road maintenance staff and the project’s design engineer.

The board heard technical explanations from Nichols Consulting Engineers (NCE), public-safety concerns from Cal Fire, and pleas from Cobb residents who said the initial chip-seal lift is already showing raveling and potholes. "We would typically expect to get 10, 15 years out of a double chip in a low traffic environment," James, a senior pavement engineer with NCE, told the board, adding that performance can fall well short of that in…