DOTD forced to repair Heritage Rd. two years after resurfacing

In a matter of two years, Louisiana’s Department of Transportation and Development has been forced to repair a newly resurfaced Heritage Road, which is also known as La. Hwy. 1172.
Repairs became necessary after the road, which cost a total of $2,986,676 and received its final inspection on July 28, 2016, began to separate. The crack in the road, according to DOTD employee Bill Oliver, “develops below the structure.”
In DOTD’s first attempt to repair the crack a little over two weeks ago, rock and asphalt were poured over the crack in an effort to hold the road together. However, in a matter of days, the substance used to seal the crack was splitting apart itself.
After a Facebook post was made about the condition of the road, DOTD returned to the location to once again attempt to repair the two year old highway approximately a week after the first repairs.
According to Oliver, who works at the DOTD Lafayette office, there are three factors that have contributed to current state of La. Hwy. 1172.
Oliver said, “The three factors causing this to happen include the sub-grade soil, the trees along the roadway, and the weather - drought like conditions. The problem develops in the ground below the roadway.”
DOTD spent Monday of last week using Durapatch to repair the road and the first repairs.
The process involved, spraying asphalt emulsion over the crack in the road and spraying limestone rock over emulsion to build up the crack and seal the flawed area.
Following the first attempt to repair the roadway, limestone was left scattered throughout the road. However, in its effort to fix the cracked road for the second time, DOTD removed loose limestone from the road and made the area of roadway where the crack was located smooth.
According to Oliver, one thing that could have been used to prevent this problem from occurring involves what DOTD calls “root barriers,” which he said is something new DOTD is using when resurfacing roads.
Oliver said, “To stop these things from happening to roads, something new we are trying is to put up root barriers along the roadway, but that is an additional cost for the job.”
Root barriers are physical underground walls that are put in place so that tree roots cannot gain access to the structure, which in this case would have been La. Hwy. 1172.
After completing the repairs, Oliver said, “The Durapatch used is very strong and should last for several years.”