PRESS RELEASE - FOG SEAL

Mercer County Engineer Jim Wiechart is announcing that Mercer County Engineer crews will be starting the fog seal work on various rural local roads in Mercer County this week.

The Mercer County Engineer road crews are preparing to place an asphalt sealant onto the roadway for roads that were chip sealed recently. The purpose of this sealant is to:

1. Further fill the cracks and voids in the pavement and better seal the pavement surface

2. Virtually eliminate all the dust and loose stone

3. Lessen the noise factor created by the new surface

4. Provide a black surface to better accentuate the yellow centerline stripe and to increase the winter snow/ice melting due to the blackened background

The sealant will be applied in mile increments and will cure out in about 1/2 hour. After that point, our crews will open that mile section to traffic and then move to the next section of roadway. Once cured, the sealant will not track nor spray onto vehicles. If drivers have to access specific locations within a closed fog sealed road section (and are not through traffic), they are encouraged to speak politely to the crews in the area.