Cape Sealing

Cape sealing is a cost-effective preventative road management treatment. The average lifespan of a road is 10 to 12 years; however, increasing traffic loads and weather conditions, which cause expansion and contraction, can significantly reduce the quality and safety of the pavement. With 100 center lane miles of roadway to maintain in the township, repaving is costly and disruptive to residential and commercial traffic. Cape sealing is a high-quality product that lasts eight to 10 years, which our Road Maintenance Department uses to extend the life of township roadways at a fraction of the cost of repaving. Cape sealing is a two-step process: first, a chip seal is applied, and a few days later, a micro-seal is added as a wear layer on top. This process is called cape seal. When the micro seal is applied, it takes 90 minutes to cure before traffic may drive on it. It goes down rough and is smoothed out with traffic over the next couple of months. It will never be perfectly smooth like asphalt, but it will last almost as long.

Living in Ohio means hot summers and cold winters. Extreme temperatures cause asphalt to expand and contract, resulting in cracks. During colder months, water and ice fill the cracks, causing them to grow and damage the subbase as water gathers under the surface. In a two-part process, this preventative management process can extend the life of the roadway for up to 10 years. Additionally, our Road Maintenance crew can apply this process multiple times, provided the road structure is stable. Conversely, repaving is costly and disruptive because it requires removing the existing top course of asphalt before replacement.

Each year, Road Maintenance personnel survey our roads and assign a road surface life grade to identify the appropriate repair or replacement action and budget for future maintenance projects.

Check out this video from Deschutes County, Oregon, for an excellent explanation of cape sealing.