Ipswich in Spring 2022

A road treatment being trialled in Ipswich has the potential to reduce dust and maintenance costs for suitable gravel roads, while also potentially providing a cost-effective way to create more reliable local road infrastructure. The new low-cost technique had been applied to Hodgsons Road at Walloon to test and demonstrate its suitability for local roads. The approach is to simply bitumen seal the existing gravel pavement, without altering the pavement depth or road alignment. If successful, it will provide a low-cost, sealed surface to a gravel road that would otherwise not meet the criteria ROAD TRIAL COULD BRING BIG BENEFITS TO RURAL AREAS

for the full expense of designing and constructing a sealed road. It also reduces the gravel road maintenance cost on roads it is applied to. There are potentially many benefits to the road treatment method. It is good for the environment as gravel roads lose about 10mm to 15mm per year under traffic. The bitumen seal protects against this loss of valuable pavement material and reduces the dust nuisance to local residences.

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