Blacktop damage to Trail, Talmadge to be repaired

8/11/2003

Fresh blacktop deliveries to two Toledo freeways have caused pavement damage on at least two city streets.

The Ohio Department of Transportation will repair pavement damage on Talmadge Road and the Anthony Wayne Trail once the resurfacing project on I-75 is finished, said Joe Rutherford, a department spokesman.

The problem: trucks delivering asphalt mix to the project sites on I-75 and I-475 got globs of tack, a rubbery asphalt adhesive that helps new pavement stick to old, stuck to their tires.

The tack rubbed off the tires during the blacktop trucks' trips back to Toledo-area asphalt plants - especially at spots where those trucks braked to a stop, including several southbound traffic lights on the Trail and the northbound left-turn lanes on Talmadge at Sylvania Avenue.

Tack deposits on the Trail, which the city resurfaced a year ago, have been particularly severe in the southbound center lane at City Park Avenue and the southbound right lane at Detroit Avenue.

Dave Moebius, the city's commissioner of engineering services, said that at the most heavily damaged spots, pavement might have to be scraped away and replaced.

I-475 was resurfaced from April until early July. The I-75 project is scheduled for completion by Labor Day weekend, weather permitting.

Repairs on the Trail would likely require two of three lanes to be closed at the same time, because of the need to work in the center lane.

A schedule for such closings remains to be determined, and no cost estimate was available this week.