By Paul Fournier
Lee’s Summit tries highly modified asphalt micro surfacing to counter damaging wheel loads of trash trucks.
Missouri’s sixth largest city is testing a new type of micro surfacing in hopes it will better resist wheel loads of heavy trash trucks that damage pavement surfaces in the community’s many cul-de-sacs.
Lee’s Summit, a city of 91,000 people located in Jackson and Cass Counties in the western part of the state, approved the use of micro surfacing made with highly polymer modified asphalt emulsion for 20 cul-de-sacs in an upscale residential area abutting scenic Raintree Lake.
The city’s pavement management program, financed by a ½-cent transportation tax, utilizes a number of scheduled programs to maintain or restore paved road surfaces including its annual micro surfacing contract. Vance Brothers, based in Kansas City, Mo., which has this year’s micro surfacing contract, was asked if they could
produce a tougher pavement treatment for the cul-de-sacs.
“The city has been looking but so far hasn’t found anything to use in these cul-de-sacs,” said Howie Snyder, Slurry/Micro Surfacing operations manager for Vance Brothers. Snyder said their contract includes not only cul-de-sacs but major thoroughfares and residential streets as well. He noted that conventional micro surfacing
performs well on streets but not on cul-de-sacs, especially those in the Raintree Lake area, where unusually heavy truck traffic damages the pavement surface treatment.
