Details:

Creators:
Padfield, Jon ; Handy, Jim ; Stephens, Jim 
Padfield, Jon ; Handy, Jim ; Stephens, Jim  Less -
Corporate Creators:
Purdue University. Joint Transportation Research Program
Corporate Contributors:
United States. Federal Highway Administration ; Indiana. Dept. of Transportation
United States. Federal Highway Administration ; Indiana. Dept. of Transportation Less -
Subject/TRT Terms:
[+]
Best Practices Chip Seals Construction Management Field Studies Productivity Recommendations Seal Coats Stakeholders
Publication/ Report Number:
FHWA/IN/JTRP-2014/12
Resource Type:
Tech Report
Geographical Coverage:
Indiana
Corporate Publisher:
Purdue University. Joint Transportation Research Program
Abstract:
The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) conducts chip seal operations on state highways to prolong the life of the road. The 

chip seal operation is labor, equipment and material intensive. A typical chip seal operation may involve 35 or more INDOT employees 

including truck drivers, flagmen, and equipment operators (brooms, rollers, aggregate spreader, and distributors). 

This project was launched to better understand and document variations in how each of the six INDOT districts, approach the 

planning and execution of their respective  chip seal operations. The goal was to identify areas in the operation where there were 

differences between districts and to determine best practices that could be shared among the districts. 

Two observers joined the chip seal operations in all six districts. The observers spent a total of 10 days with the chip seal crews (2 

days each with the crews from Fort Wayne, La Porte, Greenfield, and Seymour and 1 day each with the crews from Vincennes and 

Crawfordsville). One additional day was spent in Crawfordsville observing the Fog Seal operation that takes place a few days following 

chip seal. 

During the initial phases of this project, many differences were observed regarding various aspects of the operation including the 

stone and equipment used, truck loading procedures, traffic control, and covering raised pavement markers (RPNs).  

These observations were shared with key stakeholders on November 4, 2013 and with a second group of stakeholders on January 

22, 2014. With the help of stakeholders, best practices were identified from the observations and a list of 14 recommendations was 

created to be shared across all districts. A series of meetings were then scheduled to share the recommendations with each district and 

to determine which recommendations they were interested in piloting. 

The three ideas found during this project that provide the greatest opportunities for improving the overall operational efficiency of 

the chip seal operation are (1) the importance of closing roads during chip seal whenever possible, (2) the importance of choosing the 

best locations for stone stockpiles and oil tanker deliveries, and (3) the importance of fully loading dump trucks to their maximum safe 

and legal limit.


Format:
PDF
Funding:
SPR-3753
Collection(s):
US Transportation Collection
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:13b0f97d290464f9df6202732b79d29498c4a49f557f3eab4a85cc082fd5b107
Download URL:
https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/28397/dot_28397_DS1.pdf
File Type:

Supporting Files

• No Additional Files

More +