Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Slurry Sealing and More

Mayor Phil Tsunoda

August message

As I traversed through this wonderful community over the last couple of months, interacting with our residents, an interesting topic seems to arise every now and again. Every year, the City maintains the quality of our roads and streets through a process called “slurry sealing.” Slurry seal is a mixture of fine aggregate and emulsified asphalt that serves as a preventative maintenance measure that extends the life of our neighborhood roads by sealing them from the harmful effects of water penetration, sun and some surface wear and tear from traffic.

Along with slurry sealing, the City applies “asphalt overlay” as a structural repair. A typical thin overlay project calls for pavement milling to remove the deteriorated asphalt and the installation of 2-3 inches of new asphalt surface.

While I understand that as we “slurry seal” our streets in order to keep them in good condition, it does cause a bit of traffic delay and inconvenience as we close down certain parts of the streets or lanes we are improving. However, the number one question I get as Mayor is, “why does the City have to slurry seal the same streets every couple of months?”

Great question…and I have an even better answer -- it just seems like we “slurry seal” the same streets every two months.

But I wanted to confirm this, so I asked our Public Works Director/City Engineer to verify this for me. The answers, I believe will surprise you.

Our Public Works Director says we have a City street master schedule that serves as our “timetable” for when we “slurry seal.” And that master schedule evenly distributes how often we improve our streets and roads based on which ones are busier and have experienced more “wear and tear” than others.

For example, I know that most people whom I’ve had this conversation with tell me we “slurry seal” Pacific Park (or take your pick of your local neighborhood street) all the time. But the truth of the matter is that we do segments of that road approximately every five years! I know, hard to believe it, right?

If you don’t believe me, please visit our City’s website. I had the Public Works Director post the master schedule along with a very easy-to-read map of all the “slurry seal” work and timetable for the streets of Aliso Viejo.

Most importantly, let’s not forget why we perform this very valuable service. As Aliso Viejo’s population and businesses continue to grow, so does the wear and tear on our approximately 75 miles of street. Keeping our streets structurally sound, usable and safe is a top priority for the City. A regular slurry seal program is a “win-win” to the community since it lengthens the life of the roadways and reduces the frequency of major road repair.

You can see our street master schedule and timetable at www.cityofalisoviejo.com or for more information, please call our Public Works Department at (949) 425-2530.

Thank you and let’s all be safe out there!