MERIDIAN — As summer winds to an end -- so does the dreaded road construction season.
Crews have been chip sealing our streets for months and are finally wrapping up this year's run. Major streets you drive on might be fog sealed this week, and you might notice your cars getting splattered with asphalt and oil as you drive through zones with signage posted saying, "fresh oil".
When it sets and dries. this final touch of the chip sealing process makes the road look nice and new, but driving over it could lead to some new splatters on your car that prove tough to take off.
On Wednesday, the ACHD Chip Seal Schedule warned crews were conducting fog seal activities in the following areas:
- Garden Street from Main Street to Chinden Boulevard
- Garden Street from Main Street to Fairview Avenue
- Orchard Street from Chinden Boulevard. to Irving Street
- Fairview Avenue from Orchard Street to Curtis Road
- Garden Street from Fairview Avenue to Chinden Boulevard
- Franklin Road between Benjamin Street and Cole Road
- Residential streets from I-84 to Victory Road between Five Mile Road and Maple Grove Road
Fog sealing on pavement is familiar to everyone who lives in the Treasure Valley because it happens every summer. ACHD follows every chip seal application with a fog seal application, which helps retain rock, control dust and provide a clean canvas for pavement markings. The agency says fog sealing adds life to a chip seal and follows sweeping at the completion of the process. Fog seal takes about six to eight hours to dry on a warm day.
Another familiar sight during chip seal season: wet, sticky asphalt emulsion kicking up and splattering your car as you drive over a fog seal coat.
“You want to get it off within a few months for sure,” Ultra Touch Car Wash Facilities Manager Justin Ellis said. “The thicker stuff like this is generally like a patch of something they did in a crack. When it’s fresh it'll kick up and you will get that.”
Car washes and detailers see cars come in daily in the summer months with the liquid splattered and dried on their car. Ellis hasn't seen the stuff gunk up a car's undercarriage as much as he’s seen it land on a car’s nice paint; but if it were to get to that point he says they would remove it.
“It’s more on the paint, like the on the very bottom of the paint behind the back tire,” Ellis said. “i don’t think it would do anything to the metal but paint is soft enough to where it’s not good for it.”
“eventually the tar will eat through the paint and you'll have no paint there,” Ellis added.
Car detailers say you'll want to get it off your car asap by doing it yourself at home or going to a car detailer. They advise not trying to use soap and water. The only effective products you should use are oil or petroleum-based solvents or products such as Goo Gone. He adds if you try removing the asphalt yourself with any other product, you could scratch your paint by scrubbing too hard.
"It’s real simple: you literally spray your solvent on there and wipe it off," Ellis showed KTVB.
He says there won’t be any negative effects if you get the asphalt off immediately.
If there is only a little spot of asphalt on your car, car washes or detailers may get it off for you for free because it's a quick fix. However if you're one of the unlucky ones whose car is caked in it, there's a price tag.
"Some people’s cars get totally covered. If you get stuck behind the oil truck it’ll cover the whole thing. We've had cars that are totally black that get towed in here,” Ellis added.