Rough Road Ahead for New Yorkers
by Nick Maruhnich, Ph.D.

As you drove to work today, the chances are that you had to swerve to avoid hitting a pothole. You’re not alone. All across the nation, roads are deteriorating faster than state and local governments can afford to repair or replace them, and, in fact, New York ranks 48th in the nation in roadway smoothness.

The average asphalt road surface has a life span of about ten years in the Northeast, but State-owned roads in New York - according to the State’s Department of Transportation - are only being repaved on average once every fourteen years. More and more roads, therefore, get worse each year, and the overall network of roads generally gets poorer and poorer. This trend towards poorer highways and roads overall (i.e., even more potholes) will certainly accelerate as asphalt cement prices continue to increase; those prices have doubled over the last three years wreaking havoc with highway maintenance budgets everywhere. In New York, it is notable that 37.6% of State-owned pavements have already deteriorated to a condition of fair or poor, and industry professionals agree that the picture is even worse for roads owned by local governments.

Why? What can be done?

Traditionally, it has been a common practice to repair the worst roads first. This approach seems reasonable, but that kind of approach causes the worst roads to get fixed at a cost of five to ten times of what it would have cost if repairs would have been done earlier. The key to maintaining an entire network of roads -- and doing as many roads as possible -- is matching the right roads to the right treatment at the right time. It is at the heart of a growing trend to utilize preservation management techniques, which consider each road as an asset, and matches it to the most appropriate road-preservation treatment at a particular point-in-time. Often the road does not need to be rebuilt completely and alternative restorative treatments can make it like new when applied early and often enough; some roads may need Treatment A, while others may need Treatment B, and so on. These treatments usually cost a fraction of what it takes to rebuild the entire road. And, with this approach, more roads can be treated, at a lower overall cost, and allow for the entire network to improve steadily over time to the point where fewer roads will need to be completely redone, and budgets can eventually even be reduced.

Micro-Surfacing is one popular such pavement preservation treatment. It involves laying down a thin layer of polymer-modified, asphalt emulsion blended with a fine rock aggregate to rejuvenate and preserve the pavement. Originally it was developed in Germany in the early 1970’s and is now used around the world to recondition and extent the lives of roads. Proactive utilization of these kinds of treatments to stall road decay will extend pavement longevity by at least five to eight years; as indicated in the NYSDOT Comprehensive Pavement Design Manual.

Micro-Surfacing – arguably the most cost-efficient and effective of such treatments -- was first developed in the early 1970’s as a solution to wheel-path rutting in Germany on its national superhighway, the Autobahn. It was introduced in the U.S. in 1980, and it is now used in many states and municipalities as a maintenance tool that extends the life and improves the conditions of roads, basically making them new again. It is used in New York and has served the State and local communities well but its full benefit has not yet been realized, as many road and highway departments are slow to change from “the traditional approach of rebuilding the worst roads first” which often results in having little monies “left-over” for pavement preservation.

If every road that needed to be treated in New York was Micro-Surfaced at the proper point-in-time of their natural aging process, it is estimated that the State could save approximately $200 million dollars annually in repair and replacement costs over its 114,000 mile highway network.

Dollar savings are only part of the benefit. Micro-Surfacing also reduces accidents by enhancing the skid resistance of the driving surface, and it is also good for the environment. Micro-Surfacing reduces energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 90% as compared to traditional one and one-half inch thick hot-mix, asphalt road overlays.

Long-term experience has shown that every $1 spent on properly timed pavement preservation eliminates or delays spending $6 to $10 on future rehabilitation or reconstruction projects. In today’s economy, State and local officials must look for ways to reduce long-term costs and maintain the safety of our roads. Micro-Surfacing is one technology worth consideration. And, with such an approach, we will certainly see fewer pot holes and have smoother rides across the State.