The Pierre City Commission has given its approval to try out a new street maintenance program in 2024. At their Jan. 16 meeting, the commission accepted a request to bid a slurry seal surface treatment project.
A slurry seal is a street preservation method that uses an oil-based seal mixed with very small rocks to improve traction while preventing moisture from penetrating a street surface.
“This is a process that is being used in numerous communities throughout the Midwest,” said Maddie Jaeger, Staff Engineer. “We want to see if it works for us both financially and operationally.”
The City hopes to try out the slurry seal on 50 blocks of city street during this upcoming construction season.
“This isn’t something we can do in-house. We’ll have to see how the bids look to determine if it’s financially feasible,” said Jaeger.
Bids are due Feb. 1.
If a favorable bid is received and the program works as expected, slurry seal could supplement the City’s annual chip seal program. The slurry seal is a more precise and efficient process.
Jaeger says, “With a chip seal, a layer of oil is sprayed, then we spread chips over the top. After that, the team clears lose chips from the roadway and follows it with one more sealing process.”
A slurry seal only requires one application step; the seal and chips are put on the surface together.
The City maintains more than 80 miles of streets and chip sealed approximately 80 blocks of street during the 2023 construction season.