Cape seal contract awarded for road repairs

By Dana Casadei

The 2024 cape seal contract was unanimously awarded to Highway Maintenance & Construction Co. on Monday, March 11, at the Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees meeting.

Highway Maintenance & Construction Co. was the only bid for this project, which is budgeted to not exceed $300,000.

The township currently allocates funds in the roads budget through the pavement preservation program and is meant to be spent on performing maintenance patch overlays, concrete section replacement, and other pavement repair activities.

Over 213 miles of local roads were evaluated by the township's department of public works and then prioritized. Throughout this process, several locations were seen as areas that would greatly benefit from the application of a cape seal process. In total, they plan to use this process over a mile and a half of roadway in varies areas within the township.

The cape seal process is designed to extend the life of asphalt roads that are in fair to good condition, and the method involves spraying a material on the pavement that is then covered with fine stone chips or sand before being covered with a slurry seal. This helps to seal the cracks and keep any water out. A cape seal process is often utilized in areas that would not be getting pavement preservation work without it, and slows down the process before the township would need to do a massive road overhaul.

Paul Horen, public works superintendent, mentioned that there are lots of other nearby communities that have used it, such as Birmingham, and it is allowed by the Road Commission

for Oakland County (RCOC) as a pavement preservation process on county roads.

He noted this will also help to utilize the township funds for its best value. 

Bloomfield Township did a cape seal pilot program back in 2018 with the same company, which had great success, and at least one trustee said they had seen first hand the great things this type of program can do for county roads.

Trustee Valerie Murray lives in one of the subdivisions that was selected in 2018, she said. At the time her subdivision had tried on multiple attempts to get their roads done, so when they were approached about the pilot program, they were happy to take part. 

She noted that it has held up very well and joked anyone could come see her subdivision’s roads if they wanted to.

“I’ve really been in favor of it… it’s been great,” she said.

She wasn’t the only trustee in favor of this contract’s approval. 

So was trustee Neal Barnett, who said the 2018 program was fantastic in bringing longer life to their roads and that he’s glad to be able to provide this to Bloomfield Township residents once again. 

Horen also noted that with this cape seal program, it usually only lasts five to seven years and that the roads that were part of the pilot program are currently exceeding those expectations. Since the 2018 pilot program, they have only been asked for one pothole request to be filled on the roads that were part of that program.