Callaway to chip seal near Holts Summit, overlay near Fulton airport this month

County commuters near Holts Summit and Fulton's airport can expect roadwork on some of their routes this month.

Callaway County will begin chip sealing some roads near Holts Summit to extend the life of the existing asphalt, and will begin an overlay project of County Roads 304 and 305 near Fulton's airport.

The commission met Wednesday morning for an update on the chip sealing project, in which a layer of tar and fine gravel will be applied on asphalt roads in southern Callaway County to prevent further wear to those roads and repair minor cracks.

Presiding Commissioner Gary Jungermann said chip sealing will begin on the following sections of road this month:

•County Road 4037, from Highway 94

•County Road 4021 in its entirety

•Southern County Road 4031, from 4021 out to Highway 94

•County Road 499

"They're asphalt right now, so we're doing this and hopefully prolonging the life (of the roads) before we have to spend lots of money on them to overlay them," Jungermann said. "We're trying to do what MoDOT does on their roads, so we don't have to spend those huge dollars."

Jungermann said the county expected to spend about $103,000 on the chip sealing project, which he said he anticipated would prolong the existing asphalt's life by five to 10 years.

He said Missouri Petroleum was selected to do the project, adding that the county was "piggybacking" off of Boone County's bid for a similar project there.

"They do a lot of chip seals and get really good seals," Jungermann said. "Doing a chip seal keeps us from losing a road to where we've got some serious issues. Missouri Petroleum use that iron mountain rock from southern Missouri. It's pretty hard but real small, not that pea gravel stuff. It will hang in there really good and give us several years."

The county will chip seal about 4.7 miles of road. Jungermann said the project would begin in mid-June and should end by the end of July.

Additionally, the county will begin overlay on County Road 304 and County Road 305 in that time frame. Those roads run near the Elton Hensley Memorial Airport in Fulton.

Jungermann said that for the projects, the county anticipated spending about $300,000 in asphalt for the year.

The county will also soon bid an overlay project for streets at the Lake Breeze development in Millersburg, which are in the county inventory.