Repairs almost complete on weather-damaged Myers Road in Hanover community of El Paso County
Scott Harrison
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) — Four months after moisture and temperature extremes caused extensive damage in the Hanover area, crews are nearly finished resurfacing a two-mile stretch of Myers Road between Peyton Highway and Finch Road.
The weather, which changed from snowy and below zero to sunny and warm in a few days, crumbled the chip-sealed pavement on the rural road that was applied in 2007.
In March, crews started a $300,000 strategy to pulverize the existing pavement and apply several inches of new material to form the base for new pavement.
Over the past few weeks, crews have applied a double chip-seal layer; the process spreads finely-crushed rock and covers it with a tar-like material that dries and seals the new surface.
A crew on the scene Thursday said that the process is almost finished.
“They’re actually putting a slope into the road,” Dan Gerhard, a county public works engineer, explained. “That way, when the chip is applied, there is proper drainage. And the chip seal is nice because it’s a very flexible pavement, and it won’t just straight crack nearly as easily as asphalt or a slurry seal. The chip seal can kind of move, which will prevent future cracking.”
KRDO 13’s The Road Warrior spoke with several Hanover residents about the project.
“Right now, I love it because I’ve been driving it for three years now,” said Dave Eastin. “To be honest, it was really dangerous prior to about two weeks ago.”
Lauryn Hutto agrees.
“Honestly, because I’ve lived out here so long, this has a lot of the main traffic, so this is definitely a priority right here on Myers,” she said.