New road surface on some Harvard roads - beware

[jraguin]

I guess Harvard decided to "Stone Seal" a number of roads. I thought this was a semi-gravel layer before the pave it, but it seems like the way it is now is actually permanent. There was an email below that announced it. The only ones I would routinely ride on were
a. Slough Road (Woodchuck to Mass Ave) - Not that bad because it is a short section.
b. Prospect Hill Road/Old Shirley Road. This is the entire road that leads to and by Fruitlands that we ride on the WNR. This is a bummer.
c. Eldridge Road - This also on the WNR before we get to Taylor. Bummer again.
I am not saying you can't ride on these roads. You can ride on them fine and I did. But they just aren't great to ride on, and certainly not in a large group.

"We have completed this year's Stone Seal installation program. This is a list of the roads.
Old Shirley Road
Prospect Hill Road
Eldridge Road
Slough Road (Woodchuck to Mass Ave)
Scott Road
Craggs Road
Withington Road
Mettacomet Road
Deerfoot Trail
Partridge Hill Road
Hill crest Drive
Green Hill Road
Houghton Lane
Armstrong Road"

[swawersik]

If this is what I think it is, it's loose now, but will eventually get packed down by traffic. I hope.

[carlshimer]

This method of paving should be banned. Talk about ancient tech.

[DPatnaude]

As a civil engineer for highway and road design I have never specified chip seal on a project. I don't know who is telling all of these towns that this is a good idea to prolong the life of a roadway. They must only look at short term costs and know that they are not going to come back to that roadway for many years after the expected life of the chip seal.

[JeremyC]

Our race course went over chip seal last year. Not great but once it settle it's fine

[rusto]

As I recall, it's bad (along the shoulder, where we would typically ride) for about two weeks. After that, the loose stuff gets pushed into or off the road by the car traffic.