Bill Kahl of W.K. Construction and Lance Malburg of The Dickinson County Road Commission get an up-close look at the “cold in place” asphalt recycling project taking place on County Road 581 near Felch. (Theresa Proudfit/Daily News photo)

FELCH TOWNSHIP — Dickinson County road officials are touting a new repaving method being applied this summer on County Road 581 in Felch Township.

The Dickinson County Road Commission recently hosted a demonstration of “cold in place,” or CIP, asphalt recycling. The technique grinds up and reuses existing asphalt pavement, mixing it with a new binder, as a way to restore aging roads.

Recycled asphalt will be put down this month on about 1.76 miles of County Road 581, also known as Norway Lake Road, roughly from M-69 north to Wickman Marsh Road.

The CIP work is being done by WK Construction Company Inc. of Middleton, Wis., a subcontractor of Bacco Construction Company of Iron Mountain.

“We think it’s a good option to save a road that’s in bad condition,” said Scott Assenmacher, highway engineer for the Monroe County Road Commission, who came up from lower Michigan for the demonstration. He said the technique has been used in Monroe and Jackson counties.

But this is thought to be the first time CIP has been part of a repaving project in the Upper Peninsula, although it’s been used extensively in lower Michigan and Wisconsin, said Lance Malburg, Dickinson County Road Commission engineer.

It’s estimated it could save about $120,000 on this repaving project, perhaps even up to $150,000, Malburg said. While the construction estimate was $567,560, the bid cost using CIP was $460,376.30, he noted, and additional savings still could be realized.

CIP cuts down on costs to truck in materials such as gravel and binding solvents needed with hot asphalt paving. Plus, no additional energy is needed to prepare the mixture, he said — CIP is done at about 100 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, versus 250 to 290 degrees for “hot” asphalt.

“You’re not heating it, you’re not hauling it,” Malburg noted.

An average of 4 inches on recycled asphalt will be laid down on the County Road 581 section, Malburg said.

But resurfacing on one portion of that part of the road will be postponed to 2022, he said, to accommodate a different project slated for 2021.

The delay, Malburg said, also allows the county to gauge how the recycled blacktop withstands at least one Upper Peninsula winter. Most new road surfaces are expected to last about 20 years with maintenance; this should hold up for at least 18 years, he said, adding some tests in Iowa have indicated it might be a little longer than a new road.

A year ago, the road commission partnered with Michigan Technological University to pave three sections of County Road 607 north of Iron Mountain using varying combinations of conventional asphalt and recycled rubber. Warmer southern states have been using engineered crumb rubber in asphalt since the early 2000s, but Dickinson is the northernmost agency in Michigan to try it.

In the past, DCRC has also helped test hot-in-place recycling, prefabricated chip seal and fiberized asphalt.