Jackson County is comprised of 607 square miles, of which approximately 240 square miles are unincorporated. County forces maintain approximately 470 miles of roads, of which about 90 percent are composed of oiled earth and the accumulation of years of chip and seal treatments. An additional two percent of the County roads are untreated gravel. Coupled with the rising costs of asphalt overlays and sealing applications and the County's need for the replacement of many structurally-deficient or functionally-obsolete bridges and regular maintenance, an alternative method for improving roadways of the road and bridge network is needed. The need is twofold: stretching the available funds and conserving the unrenewable resources. In the past several years, construction material costs, especially the cost of liquid asphalt, have risen drastically.