Chip seal work on Dewey Avenue may cause daytime delays

Drivers on Dewey Avenue were facing daytime delays as Baker City’s street maintenance season moved into chip seal work, a preservation treatment meant to keep pavement from failing later and turning into a far more expensive rebuild. The project put one of Baker City’s key local streets into the same summer maintenance window that was already affecting highways across Baker and Union counties.

Chip seal is not a full reconstruction. Crews embed rock chips into emulsified oil and compress the surface with several passes of a heavy roller. The treatment is a lower-cost way to preserve and extend the life of existing pavement, stretching limited highway preservation dollars across more miles of roadway.

ODOT’s July chip seal work in Baker and Union counties began Monday, July 6, with motorists facing daytime lane closures and delays of up to 20 minutes in the work zones. All chip seal work in that July sequence was set to finish by the last week in July, with crews returning later in the summer for striping and all project activities wrapping up by the end of August.

On Dewey Avenue, the practical effects were the kind that ripple through a working city block: slower school traffic, delayed errands, interrupted deliveries and a rougher ride until the new chips settled into place. Short closures or lane restrictions were possible while crews worked, and loose gravel could remain on the surface for a time after the paving treatment.

The maintenance push was not limited to Dewey Avenue. ODOT also had a separate chip seal project on OR 7 in Baker County, running from Auburn Avenue in Baker City to milepost 35 at Phillips Lake, a stretch of about 16 miles.

City residents who want to track ongoing maintenance can check the City of Baker City’s Plans & Projects, Weekly Updates section for local street information.