Rich Maxwell drives the DENCO applicator on the RRXT, with company owner Dennis Thomas inspecting, on the north edge of the Yale.

YALE, Iowa, August 11, 2008 -- An “asphalt rejuvenator” was applied this week to three and one-half miles of the Raccoon River Valley Trail, north of Yale in Guthrie County, and a similar treatment is scheduled to be done next week on a three and one-half mile section of trail north of Cooper in Greene County.

Dan Towers, director of the Greene County Conservation Board, said an announcement of which day the work will be done will be made as soon as that is determined, so that trail users can be aware of the brief closure.

While the treatment is being applied and then is allowed to dry, the trail is closed for five to six hours, and then re-opened again.  The “rejuvenator” is a liquid “that has about the same consistency as milk,” said Dennis Thomas, owner of DENCO Highway Construction Corp., based in Mingo in east central Iowa. But it turns the surface of the trail jet black in color.

“This is a relatively new process that’s been used in other parts of the country, but not as much around here,” said Joe Hanner, director of the Guthrie County Conservation Board. “The rejuvenator seeps down into the asphalt, seals  it, holds it together a little better and hopefully that extends the life of a section of trail another five years or so.”

Thomas, of DENCO Corp., said his company does asphalt work in all 99 counties in Iowa, generally doing road construction, re-construction, patching and repair.

“As the price of asphalt has risen, everybody is looking for ways to add years to roads or parking lots or trails, hoping to avoid replacing or resurfacing it as long as possible,” Thomas said. “So a couple of years ago, we started looking for a product that we thought would work on asphalt here in Iowa with our climate.”

At a national convention of asphalt contractors two years ago in Atlanta, they found a North Carolina company offering this new rejuvenator product called “paver-x.”  He said since then, the product has been tested by various inspection agencies, and has won general approval, including from the Federal Aviation Administration for use on airport runways and arrival areas.

Both Guthrie and Greene Counties are having the treatment done on sections of the trail that are about 10 years old and are still in relatively good condition.  Before the rejuvenator is applied, cracks and other problems on the trail surface are patched or repaired.

The Guthrie County project extended from the south edge of Yale, north to 130th Street, and was completed on Monday, August 11.  That section of the trail was expected to be open and fully usable by Tuesday, August 12.

The Greene County project will stretch from the town of Cooper, to just north of Winkleman Switch. North of there, the trail has a concrete surface that is in excellent shape.

Meanwhile, fundraising continues by the Greene, Guthrie and Dallas County Conservation Board directors, as well as by the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association, to completely resurface five miles of the RRVT between Panora and Yale.  That is the only remaining original section of the trail that has never been resurfaced, and it is now 19 years old and in poor condition.  Another five-mile section of original trail, from Panora south to near Linden, was resurfaced with concrete last summer, and is one of the finest trail surfaces in the state.

The conservation and RRVT Association officials are seeking funding to use as a match for funds from the State of Iowa’s “Community Attractions & Tourism’ (CAT) program.  They’ve made application for those CAT funds and are “in negotiations” with the Vision Iowa Board that administers that program.

Article Published: 08-11-2008