Chip Seal on US36

http://303cycling.com/chip-and-seal-city-boulder

More happens in Boulder the next few days

Just posted this.

http://303cycling.com/Fog-coat-to-be-applied-to-chip-sealed-roads-Boulder

I found this from another blog (http://www.elevationoutdoors.com/blogs/master-of-none/chip-sealing-the-r...)

I’m happy to say former-mayor and current county comissioner, Will Toor, dropped by the blog to check out our discussion on chip-sealing. Naturally, he said I’m the most gifted writer he’s ever encountered…but he also wanted to clarify one important point: Boulder County in fact chip-sealed Nelson and Olde Stage Roads, but the Colorado Department of Transportation was responsible for Highway 36. That said, the resurfacing on Nelson and Olde Stage was a different aggregate and process, which left it much more cycling-friendly. Toor wanted us to know the county is in discussions with CDOT to make sure all future projects on our bike thoroughfares trend towards the better surface.

The resurfacing they did on flagstaff in summer 08 was very nice. Why don't the other mtn roads get this treatment. Much of peak to peak looks like a war zone.

Looks like more and more roads are getting the treatment. I road Cherryvale between Marshall Rd and South Boulder Rd and that has been newly chipsealed. There are no lines on the road and there are a loose sections depending on how close you get to the edge of the road.

I also road Olde Stage Rd from Lefthand Canyon over to Lee Hill Road. Be very careful descending there were small piles of loose rocks towards the stop sign at Lee Hill.

Just saw this on twitter from a couple hours ago:

FYI to all my fellow #boulder #triathletes and #cyclists Neslon road is in worse shape than 36 right now w/construction! Bring cross bikes!

Plan accordingly.

Attention Boulder County Cyclists
Boulder County will be applying chip seal to three County Roads this year. Work is anticipated to begin on Monday, August 16. All three are popular cycling routes.

We are aware that "chipping" the roads makes for a less-than-pleasant cycling experience and have made some changes to our chipping product and process this year in an attempt to improve the rideability. However, there will still be impacts and cyclists should expect poor riding conditions on these roads for the next four weeks.

2010 Chip Seal Schedule
Nelson Road, US36 (foothills highway) to 75th Street - August 16 - 20 (Monday to Friday)
Olde Stage Road, Lee Hill to Lefthand Canyon - August 23 & 24 (Monday and Tuesday)
Cherryvale Road, Baseline to Highway 170 (Marshall Drive)- August 25 & 26 (Wednesday to Friday)

The Benefits of Chip Seal
The benefits of the chip seal process make the practice very compelling. Overall advantages are three fold: (1) Adding stone chips to pavement after the new pavement has sat for more than 5 years extends the pavement life considerably allowing us to get more use out of our original overlay. (2) The cost of chipping a road is a small fraction of the cost of new paving. And (3) chip sealing uses less oil and less material than paving. Approximately 3 percent of all the oil used in this country is used on road paving. While not a large percent, any reduction in the amount of oil used on our roadways reduces the impacts of extracting, importing, and transporting this limited resource.

All schedules are subject to change due to weather or other mitigating factors. More specific information on each project will be provided as it becomes known. Please use caution when riding and remember, "Courtesy is Contagious"!!!!

Tim Swope, AICP
CIP Coordinator
Boulder County Transportation
www.bouldercounty.org/transportation

I have a solution to everyone that says that riding on chip and seal is uncomfortable. Instead of pumping up your tires to 120+ psi before your ride ride at 90-100 psi. This will smooth out the feel of the road.

I have ridden the new chip seal a few times now on US36. The chip really is not that bad but having no lines on the road is dangerous. I dont think drivers realize that they are actually driving to the right of the white line. It is also a little deceiving because the actual chip seal material bleeds off the road making the road look substantially wider at some points. Thank god its only about a 3 mile stretch because my hands start to tingle a little bit.

I would like to add to the annoymous comments of the person whose husband works on, and all other personnnel who work on Highway 36 and the many roads in the surrounding area. I know for a fact that SAFETY is an issue
for alot of these men and women. Not only are there not enough funds alotted by the city and state government, safety issues are not enforced strongly in the department itself for fear of "making waves" that will only force cutbacks in already low salaries and personnel.
The men and women who work on our highways PUT THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE every day. To suffer the verbal abuse and written complaints by drivers and bikers is insulting to anyone of intelligence. Try to think outside of your own lives for a change...and show some resprect for the men and women who are work in every kind of inclimate weather without the assurance that they are even protected from drivers who are running late to work and bikers who whine for a smoother road so they can win a race. The highways are built for automobiles...I agree with annoymous, go find a nice smooth dirt road away from the main highways for your hobby and CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS. Your arrogance is mind boggling. As for the drivers who are so disrespectful and abusive....try to look at the other side of the coin for a change. SLOW DOWN. Show some respect for the people who are trying to keep the roads safe on which to drive and KEEP THEM SAFE AS WELL. Thanks for your consideration.

I rode the SPAN the Rockies charity ride today, part of which traversed Rt 36 from Neva Rd to Lefthand Canyon Rd.

The chip seal is appalling. The road is virtually unridable due to the constant and substantial vibration the new rough surface creates. I could not actually sit down for the whole length of the chip-seal.

Moreover, it is really dangerous - there is loose gravel in random spots, and it is almost indistinguishable from the solid surface. It is going to be very easy to spin out into traffic on the loose gravel. That is not even considering the large piles of loose gravel that completely block the shoulder in a couple of places, forcing cyclists into the 65 (+) mph traffic that is typically rocketing past.

With no cars driving on the shoulder to compress it and smooth it out, I cannot see that this will get better any time soon. How the hell can Gerstle say that it will be better for cyclists in 4 weeks? What does he think is going to smooth out the shoulders? Unless the county plans to send out steamrollers, it seems to me that Gerstle is just spinning a load of BS to placate a justifiably angry mob.

This is an absolute travesty, and an appalling waste of my tax dollars to boot, on roads that simply did not need any 'fixing' - at least not yet.

I hope this turns into a serious election issue. I will certainly join any effort to make it one.

Well, there goes Olde Stage road, probably the first section of Lee Hill too. Next I'm sure it will be all the way up the canyon to Ward and Jamestown. I urge cyclists who are against chip and seal on our best cycling routes in Boulder County to send an email to Will Toor and the other county commissioners at commissioners@bouldercounty.org, we can vote them out of office in 2012 and put a cyclist in there (there are 3 commissioner spots).

Why are they "fixing" newer nearly flawless roads when so many of our secondary streets are full of potholes and crumbling?!

Regarding the work on 36, I like the comment from "CARS AND GRAMMAR" , he says (paraphrasing ) "Believe it or not, as a motorist and a cyclist, I do often think that cyclists can be their own worst enemies. I don't blow through stop signs and red lights on my motorcycle, and it has two wheels, why would I do that on my bike? I don't drive in the shoulder while in my car, why would I ride my bike in the lane of traffic when there's a perfectly wide shoulder? "

My husband worked on theHwy 36 project. You would not believe the abuse those guys have to take from cyclist and people in cars. I'm embarrassed for you people who yell at the workers and just make a fool out of yourselves. Are you going to YELL at the people at the mall or another place of work for inconveniencing you for some selfish reason ? The hubby said that the week or so before the HWY 36 project started, there was a bike race on the weekend.. He and his fellow CDOT workers had to clean up the huge mess left by the participants. There were old tire tubes, water bottles and trash left on the sides of the road. Way to be green gang! So if you want to bitch about where your tax dollars are going, you can thank the CDOT workers for cleaning up your mess. And as someone else mentioned, they could just ignore the roads for a couple more years and then you'll really be bitching and yelling and whining louder.
Anyone bitching about road work should just apprecicate what you have or leave. Move to some dirt road community that doesn't maintain them so you'll have a legitimate gripe about the road conditions.

I got back from vacation and went out on my usual ride north on 36 to discover the dreaded Chip and Seal. Lots of "chips" flying when the trucks go by, and I would not recommend riding this section to Left Hand Canyon for a long while. I wrote and email to Boulder County Commissioner Will Toor (a cyclsist and sits on the transportation board, so he knows what's up here). If you are like me and don't want to see perfectly good roads used by thousands of cyclists and many events covered with Chip and Seal, then send him and email and let him know what you think at commissioners@bouldercounty.org. I suggested asphalt paving the shoulder/bike lane. His term is up in 2012, so perhaps we need more cyclist-freindly county commissioners.

What is the trash like on 75th after the race on Sunday?

If you go up Lee Hill to Old Stage to lefthand, you miss the whole thing...

Bikers of Colorado listen up........ Are you all serious with this Bitch fest that you are trying to pass off as a blog. Let me explain to you what is going on here, the guys out on the road are not on a rampage to shut down biking in colorado as you know it. The people that are making these choices are the elected officalls that you all put in office, so I suggest that you think about that before you bitch about the CDOT worker that has just spent 36 hours straight plowing slow just so you could get to your morning namaste yoga class or so you could get to Jamba Juice for a shot of wheat gress, or the next time the tire blows out on your prius or mini and the man or woman in the Orange shirt stops and blocks traffic so you dont end up as a blood smear with bits of spandex shorts on 36 think about what you just said.

DRIVER

I did the Bus Stop ride tonight. First I give credit to the riders as they knew about the situation and made plans for a different route. We rode over about a mile of the new chip seal. Hounestly it was not that bad and within a day or two it should be fine. As far as chip seal goes this was pretty mild. I have ridden on much worse.

On a seperate note I actually enjoyed the BS ride going somewhere else for a change. It was a bit of a cluster as I never knew where we were going, but it all worked out. We rode a lot of dirt road and that might be a good idea for us, to get off of some of the main streets. Hammering in on the dirt Res road was rather enjoyable.

So something to think about for 2011. Maybe it is time for the BS ride to come up with a new route. Then alternate each week with one we do. It would be good for us, good on the drivers, and good to stay away from the police.

Wow... I have never seen such tender rear ends. Chip seal is done to seal & protect good pavement, not as a means of punishing a bunch of crybaby cyclists. It's a road. It will have bumps. Get over it, or stay at home & ride your smooth trainer.

I rode there last night (Monday) and have to agree with the posters on here, WTF are they thinking with chip sealing that road? Heck most of it was repaved within the last 5 years and it is in good shape. There are plenty of projects in greater need for $ then 36.

Mayeb this was one of the great deals with the government money, where they had to spend it or lose it? Who knows.

I rode US36 early this morning heading North. It looks like some prep work was done yesterday. Since all the lines will be covered with chip seal they have to put down temporary plastic / rubber lane markers.

I just need to remind myself not to head north for at least a week now.

I hate chip seal!

PAVE! nerds.

That road needs to be chip sealed like I need to gain 20 pounds. What dingbat makes these decisions with my tax money?

I will ignore for now the possibility that the contractor screws the proverbial pooch on the project like they did The Diagonal and adds a mini speed bump every 20 ft because CDOT doesn't apparently employ one person who has ever ridden a bike. Last year they drizzled tar on the shoulders of 36 to "fix" cracks without regard for my cycling. Just wait for the misery.

Then, we have the 90% likelihood that the cheapo contractor takes the crap CDOT spec and chip seals like they did 95th street south of Longmont such that the center of the shoulder where I am to ride is the edge of the chip seal so you get random bumpiness that makes cycling negatively enjoyable and negatively safe when it bounces you off the bars unless you have a death grip.

Thanks for nothing CDOT ... with my tax money.

I saw this today! What's wrong with 36!! It's in great condition especially in this area! This is a great road along the foothills that will be ruined by chipseal.