San Rafael, CA – The Marin County Department of Public Works (DPW) will begin a road sealant project during the week of September 20, conducting preventative maintenance on 19.6 miles of pavement on roads in unincorporated areas of Marin County.
The project will initially address Fallon Two Rock Road near Tomales in West Marin, as well as several connected roads in the vicinity, and Platform Bridge Road in Point Reyes. The remaining roads for the project, which are in Black Point, Green Point, Upper Lucas Valley and western Novato, will be addressed in the spring to avoid potential winter weather.
This West Marin road will be part of a road sealant project using recycled tire rubber.The $2 million project will utilize recycled tires as one of the materials for the road sealant process. DPW was awarded a $250,000 rubberized pavement grant through the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) for this eco-friendly approach. This project will prevent 22,713 tires from entering the waste stream. The remainder of the funding comes from the County’s Road and Bridge Rehabilitation fund.
The CalRecycle grant is to encourage the use of recycled tire material in appropriate road sealant projects when they meet the technical specifications of the alternative material. By cutting down on the need of new materials, rubberized pavement reduces the negative environmental impacts that are commonly associated with standard pavement treatments.
“Using techniques like rubberized paving is a great way to simultaneously improve our road quality and support our community wide efforts to reduce Marin’s carbon footprint,” said Rachel Calvert, DPW Senior Civil Engineer. “Using old tires for preventative road maintenance stops them from becoming landfill waste or being illegally dumped, which ultimately would contaminate our environment.”
DPW was awarded a $250,000 rubberized pavement grant through the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) for this eco-friendly approach.Construction will take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. The work will require single-lane access on Platform Bridge Road for one work day, during which the traffic flow will be controlled by flaggers and a pilot vehicle. In the Tomales area, roads will be closed for one work day with detours. Notice will be provided to residents in proximity of work sites along with contact information for property owners to coordinate essential trips on the closure day.
Preventative maintenance helps extend the useful life of pavement and can delay when a street needs to be repaved. This proactive approach calls for keeping good roads in good condition, rather than allowing them to fully deteriorate through their lifecycle.
“Deteriorating roadways have become a nationwide challenge and waiting to replace failed pavement results in tremendously expensive and disruptive projects,” said Eric Miller, Principal Civil Engineer for DPW. “In Marin, we are focusing on cost effective, sustainable pavement preservation work to help incrementally improve our overall pavement condition, while also striving to keep our maintenance backlog from increasing.”
Relative to major rehabilitation or reconstruction, there are various preservation treatments that can be applied to a road segment quickly and for a fraction of the cost, making them an inherently sustainable activity and a financially responsible option. The work often utilizes low cost, low environmental impact treatments to prolong the life of the pavement. By delaying major rehabilitation activities, energy and virgin materials are conserved, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions over time.
Improving roadway conditions across unincorporated areas of Marin has been an ongoing commitment of the County for years and is one of the top priorities for the Board of Supervisors. Each year, DPW aims to improve a balance of local, arterial and collector roads, approaching the selection strategically with a long-term goal of overall network improvement.
For example, this summer DPW is conducting the $1.6 million Lucas Valley Road curve realignment project, a $1.6 million roadway rehabilitation project in northern Marin’s Upper Lucas Valley area, and 9.5 miles of additional roadway maintenance across Marin. Before winter, DPW will be conducting $850,000 of roadway improvements in the Loma Verde area of unincorporated Novato and $300,000 of work on Redwood Highway Frontage Road near Strawberry. Also, the $18 million Sir Francis Drake Boulevard rehabilitation project, titled Upgrade The Drake, is expected to wrap up an 18-month construction phase this fall. The major project will improve public safety along 2.2 miles of the heavily used roadway.