Pleasant Plain Road to receive smaller chips, ‘fog seal’ for smoother finish

FAIRFIELD – Pleasant Plain Road will receive additional rock and binding next week as Jefferson County’s secondary roads department seeks to address problems with the road that have arisen since it received a new chip seal in June.

Jefferson County Engineer DeWayne Heintz said asphalt contractor L.L. Pelling of North Liberty will return to the county next week, tentatively on Thursday, Sept. 4, to begin a three-stage process designed to repair ruts in the road, level it, and give it a darker and smoother finish. One lane of Pleasant Plain Road will be closed at a time, so motorists who need to use Pleasant Plain Road should expect delays for about three days once work begins.

This upcoming round of repairs to Pleasant Plain Road will include a spot chip-seal where tires have displaced the initial chip-seal laid in June, which will minimize the visual rutting in the wheel paths. L.L. Pelling will then apply another chip-seal using 3/8 inch chips to reduce the tire and road noise, and then lastly, the contractor will apply a fog seal to bind the new chips to the road, which will reduce dust and provide a dark surface color.

“We’re using a smaller aggregate that should provide a quieter ride than what we ended up with,” Heintz said. “In a perfect world, Pleasant Plain would have ended up like 110th Street, but that didn’t happen. We’re doing the best we can to make it better.”

Heintz said the county will just apply this new coat to Pleasant Plain Road and some patches near Lockridge, but not to the other chip and seal roads done this summer on Douds Road and 110th Street through the town of Pleasant Plain.

“I’ve been trying to come up with something that is cost-effective but which will also give a better, safer finished product,” Heintz said about the decision to do further repairs to Pleasant Plain Road. “We could probably go through winter and hope it won’t cause any issues, but I’m not comfortable with that, and the board is not either.”

During Monday’s meeting of the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors, Cambridge Investment Research President of Advocacy and Administration Seth Miller addressed the board about the impact of the road’s quality on his business. He said Cambridge brings in clients from across the country to its offices north of Fairfield every week, and having them ride on a rough road does not make a good impression. In late July, another Cambridge representative, Jeff Vivacqua, also expressed his displeasure with the quality of the Pleasant Plain Road chip seal.

Heintz announced that he intends to ask the supervisors to extend the temporary lower speed limit on Pleasant Plain Road through the end of September. In late June, the supervisors approved a 45 mph speed limit on the recently chip sealed roads of Pleasant Plain Road, Douds Road and 110th Street for two months, ending on Sept. 2 when they would revert to their normal 55 mph speed limits. Heintz said that, with the new rocks and fog seal being applied to Pleasant Plain Road, it should remain at the lower speed limit of 45 mph for another month.

Douds Road and 110th Street have received painted stripes, but Pleasant Plain Road won’t receive its stripes until late September, Heintz added.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com