Published
The county will take your road in asphalt or in three shots of chip — and it has written down exactly what each one means
Two finishes the county will accept
Gravel is not the end of the road in Fremont County — it is the middle. When a road built to county standards gets its surface, the county’s roadway standards name exactly two doors, and the county chooses between them with you:
“The surface type shall be approved by the Fremont County Public Works Director, but can generally be considered one of two types: a hot mix asphalt concrete or a three shot asphalt chip surface.”
— Fremont County Roadway Standards, Ordinance 2008-03, surfacing section. Retrieved 23 September 2026
One is the asphalt you drive everywhere. The other is a three-round chip seal — cheaper up front, spread across two years, and specified to the tenth of a gallon. The standards (adopted as Ordinance 2008-03) treat paving not as an upgrade but as a specified construction phase, with its own weather windows, materials tests, and payment obligations.
Hot mix, and the weather that comes with it
- The air: no HMA goes down unless ambient temperature is above 50°F and rising. In this county that is a calendar constraint, not a footnote.
- The mix: asphalt cement of 85/100 penetration grade or AC-10, laid at 235°F to 280°F, in trucks built to hold that heat to the roadbed.
- The aggregate: at least 60 percent of the coarse fraction with two fractured faces on the No. 4 sieve, Los Angeles wear not over 30 percent, sand equivalent over 40, absorption not over 2 percent — rock that bites, wears, and stays clean.
- The mat: compacted to 95 percent of the mix’s laboratory maximum density on residential streets, 97 percent on arterials, collectors and industrial — verified by nuclear densitometer, with cores where the county wants them.
- The surface: judged against a ten-foot straightedge, with deviations over 0.02 foot on surface courses corrected before anyone signs anything.
Read as a set, those numbers are why a paving bid from outside the valley can mean nothing until it is checked against the county’s page. The tolerance bands even tell you how the county argues: test results inside 92–94 percent (residential) or 93–96 percent (other) trigger retesting and price adjustments rather than automatic rip-out — the standard wants a road, not a lawsuit.
Three shot chip seal: the county’s other door
- Shot one: MC-800 asphalt at 0.40 gallons per square yard, chips spread at 25 to 30 pounds per square yard, rolled in — only when ambient is 70°F and rising.
- Shot two: another 0.35 gallons, within three working days of the first.
- Shot three: the following year — 0.35 gallons of MC-800 or 0.45 of CRS-II-R emulsion, after the first winter has had its say.
Two consequences follow directly from that calendar. First, the county requires a second performance bond covering the year-two work before the first shot goes down — the road is not finished when the crew leaves. Second, a chip-sealed road is a two-season project by design, and anyone promising otherwise is selling a different road than the county’s. One prohibition stands out for its specificity: wobble-wheel rollers are barred from this work. The standards have opinions about equipment, not just outcomes.
Who pays to prove it
Every clause lands on the same side of the ledger: core samples are taken by the applicant, and all materials testing — densities, gradations, depths — happens at the applicant’s or contractor’s expense. Acceptance is not a walkthrough; it is a testing program the developer funds and the county reads. That belongs in the budget the same way the asphalt does.
Bring the surface decision into the dirt phase
- Ask the Public Works Director which surface the county expects before the base is shaped — the base tolerances the paving has to sit on are already in the standards.
- Book the weather window: HMA wants >50°F and rising, chip seal ≥70°F and rising — in practice, summer, and only summer.
- If it is chip seal, plan the second year now: the third shot, and the bond that guarantees it.
- Write the testing into the contract — who cores, who gauges, who pays — because the county will ask for the numbers, not the receipt.
- Then walk the whole road with us, base to blotter: (208) 932-1140.
The surface is the last and most visible chapter of a road whose story starts lower down: what a county road is made of, the drainage rules that shape it, and — after the county accepts it — the one-year warranty that follows acceptance and the plow question every owner asks next.
Common questions
What paving does Fremont County accept on a new road?
Two surface types, approved by the Public Works Director: hot mix asphalt concrete, or a three shot asphalt chip surface. The choice is the county's to confirm, and the specifications for each are different animals - one is a single-season plant mix, the other a two-year chip seal program.
How warm does it have to be to pave with hot mix?
Ambient temperature above 50 degrees Fahrenheit and rising, with the mix laid between 235 and 280 degrees. The county's paving season is a summer window by rule, not by custom.
How dense does the asphalt have to be?
The finished mat must reach 95 percent of the mix's laboratory maximum density on residential streets and 97 percent on arterials, collectors and industrial roads, verified by nuclear densitometer with core samples where required.
What is a three shot chip surface?
A chip seal built in three rounds: MC-800 asphalt at 0.40 gallons per square yard with 25 to 30 pounds of chips per square yard first, a second shot of 0.35 gallons within three working days, and a third the following year - 0.35 gallons of MC-800 or 0.45 of CRS-II-R emulsion.
Why does chip seal need a second bond?
Because the third shot is due a year after the first two, the county requires a second performance bond covering that year-two work before the sealing starts. The road is not complete when the crew drives off.
Who pays for testing the new pavement?
The applicant or their contractor. Core samples are taken by the applicant, and all materials and density testing happens at the applicant's or contractor's expense - acceptance runs on the numbers that testing produces.
Are wobble-wheel rollers really prohibited?
Yes - the county's standards expressly bar wobble-wheel rollers on this work. It is one of several equipment rules (heated screeds, tight-lined dump bodies) that spell out how, not just what.
Can we pave a private stretch to the same standard?
Building to the county's roadway standards is the route for anyone who wants a road the county could someday accept - which is exactly why the surface-type decision belongs at the beginning, with the Public Works Director, rather than after the gravel is shaped.