Economy has Ohio Counties Looking for Alternatives to Asphalt CHILLICOTHE, OH (WOUB) - Several counties in Ohio are abandoning asphalt paving because of money problems.

Ross county engineer Charles Ortman says asphalt prices are too high and he can no longer afford them. Diminished tax collections are also exacerbating the problem.

"It's a compound problem," Ortman says. "We have the rise of asphalt, then we have the budgets that are not coming in. Our gas tax revenues are down in 2009 around 3 percent and our license plate revenues were down around 3 percent."

Instead of a solid asphalt surface, Ortman is downgrading to gravel and using a chip and seal method to maintain the driving surface.

Ortman says the chip and seal application can maintain roads for about five to seven years.

"If the prices ever do come back around, then we can put the asphalt back on top of that," he says. "But in the meantime, we can take care of our investment a little bit with chip and seal."

In Washington County, engineer Bob Badger says they started using chip and seal about five years ago when the county commissioners cut the budget for road improvements about 32 percent.

He says only the county roads with heavy traffic are resurfaced using asphalt.

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