The new surfaces are good, indeed. Unfortunately, I am sorry to report that there is a small area of new surface on the southbound side, which has been dug up this week to repair a drain. The temporary surface that has been put down is rough and uneven and, probably prone to being churned up and potholing. Thankfully, it is a very small area and most of it is in the hard shoulder, with little spilling out onto the road proper.

I rode down 9W yesterday after doing River Road and, if memory serves me correctly, it is on the northside of the juncion with Hillside Avenue or Montammy Road.

That stretch of road was resurfaced with a tar surface, topped with gravel. The idea is that the traffic gradually pounds the gravel into the tar and it sets hard during the colder months.

It is a cheap form of resurfacing, designed for roads with light traffic and can be effective provided the pounding takes place in hot weather, which it has. That said, I rode it a couple of weeks ago and it felt quote rough on a bike and there was still a lot of loose gravel. But it is an improvement on the old surface, which had quite a few craters in it.

The downside of such a surface is that it wouldn't take much heavy traffic to churn it up, allowing water, snow, ice and melting ice and snow to make some large potholes. Garbage trucks and large postal vans will probably be enough to do the damage. I suspect it will be full of craters by the time the SIGs and STSs are going next spring if we have a lot of snow and ice this coming winter.