Road construction nearing completion

The construction on U.S. Highway 2 between Libby and Kalispell in the Swamp Creek area is just about completed, however the stretch of road won't be chip sealed until next year.

Crews are still working on the highway between mileposts 53.8 and 57.2, according to Gary Kalberg, District Construction Engineer for the Missoula District for the Montana Department of Transportation. Work should wrap up by the end of this week with guard rails, seeding and chip sealing still needing to be completed, he explained.

Chip sealing and final striping of the road won't be completed until next year, however. Chip sealing is a weather sensitive process and must be done fairly early in the year, Kalberg explained.

"Chip sealing is touchy," he said.

Chip sealing can't be done in the area between the end of August and the middle of May, Kalberg said. The process requires heat to cure and hold the chips to the road. Volatiles in the chip seal are mixed in with the oil and the oil stays liquid if it hasn't been properly cured, Kalberg continued.

As the name suggests, chip sealing provides a seal on the asphalt and friction for drivers. Crews have the ability to measure the friction on the road and will erect signs to caution drivers if the friction is too low, Kalberg explained.

"There will be greater friction with the chips," he said.

Waiting to chip seal the stretch of road will not be a problem for drivers this year, Kalberg added. In the past, all road projects were required to sit idle until the following year for chip sealing because of curing, but now the process is generally faster and crews wait until the temperature is ideal for curing, Kalberg explained.

Construction crews started the project last spring. The road was widened, curves were straightened, dips in the road were filled and hills were lowered, Kalberg said. The whole project cost approximately $5.38 million.

"It was a huge reconstruction project," he added.