Tad Blanton, a 40+ Year Veteran of Southern Oregon City’s Public Works Operations, Tells Tale of Changing Maintenance Paradigm from Reactive Repaving to Preventative Treatment
Vancouver, WA – October 22, 2019 – At the 2019 Northwest Pavement Management Conference, City of Medford (OR) construction inspector Tad Blanton presented “Preventative Maintenance – Fog Seals on the City of Medford’s Street System, a case study on the city’s shift from “in-house overlay” pavement replacement to preventative maintenance using a biobased pavement-rejuvenating sealer.
“Through the 1990s, we were doing more work, but with the constant deterioration of the (streets) system, it seemed like we weren’t making any progress,” Blanton said. “Then in 2007, our new public works director introduced the process of lowering the lifecycle costs of pavement maintenance, which essentially meant applying the right treatments at the right times.”