Building Better Roads: A Look into Road Updates

Springtime is when the birds return, flowers start to bloom, and the construction cones emerge from hibernation. Nothing says "spring" quite like the sweet scent of steaming asphalt.

Our Streets Department keeps a close eye on the condition of the city-owned roads. Each year, we consider the condition of our streets and decide what preventative measures or repairs could be done to extend their life. It can be a nuisance for your commute, but it's an essential part of maintenance that can save costs in the future.

If we didn't do spot treatments, we'd need to replace roads more often, which would cost millions. Small improvements, like sealing cracks or putting on a protective spray, preserve the roads and prevent the need for a huge makeover.

West Jordan has over 350 miles of street surfaces to maintain, and thousands of street corners.

In the next few weeks, you'll see a postcard in your mailbox if your street is on our schedule to treat, repair, or replace. Or, you can check our website.

What We Do

We use five intervention methods, listed from easiest to hardest (and most time and money-consuming):

Crack Seal - This is our first line of maintenance. Filling cracks with a sticky, thick liquid prevents further deterioration into major holes.

HDMB - High-Density Mineral Bond - This might look like we're watering the street! We're actually covering it with seal that coats the asphalt and protects it from water, UV rays, and other damage that occurs over time.

Chip Seal - We spray down tack oil, then put some road stone on top and roll it into the surface of the road.

Scrub Seal - When there are more cracks than a chip seal can handle, but no potholes, we'll do a scrub seal. Again, we use tack oil, then industrial brooms are attached to construction trucks, and the oil is swept along the road surface, squishing oil into cracks before spreading then rolling the stone in.

Mill and Overlay - This is our most time-consuming and expensive treatment. We grind down the existing top layer of asphalt and remove it. Then we cover the exposed layer with tack oil to help the new asphalt stick. New asphalt is laid and then rolled flat and smooth. If manholes or valves have been buried, we raise them to the new street level. We also replace the striping where applicable.

Accessible Sidewalks - We are also improving our ADA ramps on street corners. We put down colored tiles on the edge of street corners so people can feel when the sidewalk transitions into a street. We also change the slope of the sidewalk to make wheelchair access easier. Construction for these ramps may take a few weeks.