Lucas authorizes up to $98,000 for two-course chip seal trial on Daytona Avenue

The Lucas City Council authorized the city manager to negotiate and enter into an agreement with PMG Paving LLC to apply a two-course chip seal with a fog seal on the city-owned portions of Daytona Avenue and Cedar Bend Circle, in an amount not to exceed $98,000 charged to account 11-8209-301.

Public Works Director Jeremy Bogle told the council the two-course approach (two layers of binder and rock followed by a fog seal) is more flexible on expansive soils and appears to last longer in field examples. He said staff and the city inspected existing chip-seal work by the contractor that had been in place about five years and found it in better condition than many asphalt sections of similar age. Bogle described the process: "He cleans the surface... puts down 1 layer of tar, layer of rock, sweeps that, then puts down another layer of tar and another layer of rock. And then at the end, he does a fog seal...".

Council members asked about traffic comparability, cost differences versus a single-course chip seal and typical performance; Bogle said the two-course option costs more but is expected to at least double useful life compared with the single-course alternative. The contract would be the first with this contractor after staff evaluated references and field performance. Council voted unanimously to authorize the manager to negotiate the contract.

Council and staff framed this as a trial on shorter segments (about 1,500 feet on Daytona) to evaluate performance before considering wider application to the road system. The item was approved as a motion with a second and a unanimous voice vote.