Traveling on Main Street in Brownsville and south of Lebanon will be curtailed Aug. 12-15 as the Linn County Road Department applies a chip seal on Main Street, according to Operations Manager Kevin Hamilton.
Hamilton said the project encompasses about six miles of a planned 65 miles of chip sealing projects this summer. Linn County has about 1,150 miles of roads, of which 950 miles are paved.
There will be times when traffic will be stopped and other times, when there will be only one lane of travel.
There will be no roadside parking any of the four days.
“This will be a scrub seal with a fog seal overlay,” Hamilton said. “The fog seal is actually a thin layer of asphalt and it will turn black, so it looks nice and it provides a nice background for road markings.”
Hamilton said the last time major work was done on Main Street was about 15 years ago.
“We will start about 7 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 12, at Rock Hill Drive. We will be proceed south to Hausmann Avenue at the north end of Main Street in Brownsville,” Hamilton said. “This is about 5.75 miles.”
Hamilton said he hopes to start working on Main Street about noon, continuing through downtown throughout the afternoon.
The crew will divide the Main Street project into three segments to Highway 228. Sweeping Main Street and applying the fog seal will occur in segments.
A graphic of the project area can be found on the Linn County Road Department’s website at http://www.co.linn.or.us/Roads/ConstructionDetal.asp?ProjKey=105.
“Chip sealing is cost-effective,” Hamilton said. “It is a good way to preserve road surfaces. It’s a lot liking regularly changing the oil in your car or truck. It’s maintenance.”
Hamilton said repaving a road costs four to five times as much as chip sealing.
“Chip sealing allows us to keep the base structure – the rock and asphalt – in good shape,” Hamilton said. “The chip seal protects the road from adverse elements.”
Hamilton said the county tries to chip seal roads every six to 10 years, depending on the amount of traffic and size of vehicles that regularly pass over them.
“There are actually several varieties of chip sealing processes, from single or double to scrubs and slurry,” Hamilton said. “We try to match the application to the road conditions.”
Brownsville City Administrator Scott McDowell said the project will provide the community with a major upgrade of Main Street.
For more information, contact Hamilton at (541) 967-3919.
– Alex Paul, Linn County Communications Officer