Woodbury Roads Going to Pot Sooner Than Expected: ‘City Engineer’s Nightmare’

There is a “whole era of pavement” in Woodbury that is showing signs of distress sooner than city officials expected.

The issue seems to be related to a blacktop mix used during the late 1980s into the ’90s, though Minnesota Department of Transportation research on the problem isn’t conclusive, said Klayton Eckles, city engineer for Woodbury.

It was during the late 1980s that recycled materials began to be used in blacktop.

“We believe there’s something in that mix design where it’s not lasting as long as the old mixes,” Eckles said.

While it’s a statewide problem, the issue is more prevalent in Woodbury, where the core roads in the city—from Radio Drive to Woodbury Drive—were built during that timeframe, a period of rapid growth.

This year’s spring weather exacerbated the problem, Eckles said.

“We’re seeing widespread areas of roadways that have these little potholes,” he said.

The blacktop mixture, which the Minnesota Department of Transportation oversees and approves, has changed several times over the past few decades, most recently in 2000 and again a few years later, Eckles said.

The fear, however, is that the blacktop being put down today may have similar problems because recycled materials are still being used, he said. It’s cheaper, but there could be gravel or shingles used in the mix that makes it more susceptible to early failure.

Still, it’s too early to say if that’s the exact cause.

“But I think we’re all worried about that,” Eckles said, adding that a city engineers group on Monday urged MnDOT to conduct further study of the problem.

It’s also difficult to determine where the fault may lie, because it’s tough to predict how a blacktop mix will function two decades after it’s installed, Eckles said.

The problem in Woodbury is mostly on residential streets, where a “softer mix” of blacktop was laid down. It’s still early, and city officials are assessing the scope of the issue and developing a strategy for dealing with it.

“It is a city engineer’s nightmare,” Eckles said.

Woodbury has also worked to invest in its roads in recent years, devoting a larger portion of the budget to street maintenance.

In the meantime, officials have fielded plenty of calls from residents about the condition of city streets.

“We’re very aware of it,” Eckles said. “We’re going to mobilize our forces and our resources to take care of it, but it’s going to take some time.”

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