This summer, the City of Bethel spent $91,000 to try out a road binding agent, EK-35, which is increasingly popular for treating gravel roads that get permafrost. It has a unique formula designed to prevent potholes and reduce dust. And unlike the current treatment, this one doesn’t wash away with the rain.
So far, they’ve put the road binder on a 1-mile stretch of Ptarmigan and Akakeek Street, and they’ll be applying another mile soon.
Some Bethel residents are comparing it to asphalt, while others are asking about the residue on their car.
KYUK spoke to Robert Vitale, the CEO of Midwest Industrial Supply Inc., the company that created the new road binding agent, to find out more about how it works.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
KYUK: So, EK-35 has recently been applied to a section of our road, and it's just a trial, but the community is curious about what it is and if it helps mitigate dust, potholes. So, I was wondering if you could explain some of the uses and the properties of the new road solution?
Vitale: The EK-35 is a relatively new technology. I mean, we developed the first formulation of EK-35 about 20 years ago and we have recently made some improvements to it. It’s very unique synthetic fluid binder system that is both a dust control product and stabilization product.
The way that it controls dust is when it is applied to a road or blended into a road it permanently bonds to the particles of the road, whether it's aggregate or other materials. Then as it coats and bonds, the particles themselves, it bonds particle to particle so that what you have is a bound matrix of the road materials with EK-35 which, since the road is bound together, you don't have dust leaving. Because, you know, dust is a vital component of the road itself, which if the road loses those vital components, causes a cycle of deterioration, raveling, potholing, you know. General road deterioration, at the same time, the displeasure of having dust where you don't want road materials.
One of the very unique properties of the product is that it it fundamentally doesn't freeze, which makes it very unique for the stabilization of roads in cold climates, particularly where you have a freeze-thaw effect. And at the same time, because of its unique composition, it resists moisture penetration so that it has a durability that is quite unique from any of the typical kinds of products that might be put on roads.
KYUK: Right. And so what are some of the ingredients? What's it made of?
Vitale: Yeah. It is a combination of a very unique synthetic fluid, which by definition is a clear compositional material that is made by taking a certain type of base oil, putting it through a process of hydroisomerization, which means you put the material into a device, you blow it apart chemically, and you remove anything that is considered to be an impurity. And then you put it back together. You have a very uniquely environmentally clean, environmentally sound fluid which we use as we incorporate a unique binding system that is a tree ingredient. I mean it is a pitch/rosin binder, you know, that literally comes from trees. Again, very unique. And then, you know, it has some other components to it.
KYUK: Well, I was just going to ask, actually, about the environmental impacts. And I know it's a liquid, correct me if I'm wrong, versus what we had before was a powder, calcium chloride, which was more likely to go up into the air. Are there potential environmental impacts?
Vitale: EK-35 has gone through extensive independent tests, environmental tests, and it is a, you know, an extraordinarily environmentally sound product. Among other things, it doesn't leach out, you know, what you talked, you mentioned, the chlorides. They cause corrosion. water washes them out, they leach out, and you know, then get into sources of water, etc. The EK-35 chemically bonds the material. And when it's exposed to moisture, water, any kind of the climate, climate conditions, it does not move, it does not leach out, it stays where it's put. It is unusually unique in that regard.
KYUK: Yeah, because some people here have been commenting on Facebook. It was one reason I kind of was motivated to find out more about the substance. They've been commenting that there's sort of a tar or oil getting onto their cars. I think you said that that's actually not a tar or oil. It's a tree sap.
Vitale: Yeah. Now, and what happened, I can tell you when we did the application, the day that the product was being put down, a storm came in. And they were trying to get the application down before the storm, which didn't work out well. And so that there was some excess product on the road when the water came. And then traffic was running on that. We had heard some residents have got the product on their car. Normally it is applied in multiple passes. You know, you don't put all the product down just in one trip up and down the road, you go back and forth three, four, five, six times. And it is applied at the rate that it goes into the road as opposed to laying up on top of the road.
KYUK: Right. So it's something that kind of happened with this first application, but it's not something that people will expect.
Vitale: Yeah. No, no, no, no.
KYUK: And is there anything that you recommend that they do if they want to clean it off their cars?
Vitale: I would suggest something like a Dawn dishwashing detergent and warm water. They should be able to wash it off now. I don't know. Depending upon how much is on the vehicle, I'm just not quite sure if there will be some better way. But I could, particularly if somebody has, you know, a vehicle with it on and send me a photo, you know, take a photo with your iPhone and send it to me. I'd be happy to comment on it.
KYUK: And one other thing people have brought up, and this also might be the same root cause, which was just that it was all applied at once when it was raining, some mentioned that it's been slippery when it rains.
Vitale: Yeah, that's because of the too much product down before the rain. Normally the roads are sprayed, and the product penetrates in the road within a matter of 30 minutes, 60 minutes. And I mean, it's a quite quick process.
KYUK: Right, right, and it doesn't take as much maintenance, right? You don't have to reapply it as often.
Vitale: No, no. But part of what is being done by Bill Arnold and his team, given the kind of aggregates and the materials that are in the roads, which are different, you know, a little bit here and there. And the traffic. It is really going through the learning phase of exactly how best to apply the product on the different roads. How much to get the desired initial condition. And then at what frequency does a maintenance application need to be made? And how very light? I mean, the maintenance applications are, you know, just very, very light.
KYUK: Yeah. And I feel like we kind of talked about it when you're talking about the impacts in the environment. But maybe could you talk about, are there any health risks associated with the product?
Vitale: No, no. We have a very extensive series of independent laboratory tests. There's no, you know, there's, there's nothing in it that really presents a risk to the people, environment, to vegetation. So, it's been extraordinarily tested over the last, let's say, 20 years.
KYUK: Okay, great. Yeah. And so just to round it out, since some, some people take time to get used to change and you know, potholes are the devil we know, what would you tell them?
Vitale: Well hopefully bye-bye potholes. I mean, again, the idea is really to have found relatively smooth, easily maintained road conditions.
