TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

The windshields of four of David Cooper's five vehicles have been repeatedly chipped and cracked over the past 10 months as he and his children have driven along Cuddy Valley and Frazier Mountain Park roads to and from their Pine Mountain Club home.

"Every time we went out we'd get a strike," he said. "You'd get a chip and in a few days or weeks it would crack."

Cooper is just one of hundreds of residents of and visitors to the towns around Frazier Park who have experienced exactly the same thing.

And now taxpayers are on the hook for more than $600,000 in additional roadwork and vehicle repairs.

Since October, when Kern County Roads Department crews and contractors resurfaced the main route through Frazier Park and into the mountains around Mt. Pinos, drivers have filed 322 claims against the county for damage caused when tires flung loose rocks into windshields, mirrors, headlamps and paint jobs.

And more claims are expected to come in.

"Pretty much everybody I know has (a claim)," Cooper said.

ROAD PROBLEM

Kern County Roads Department engineer Todd Wood said that something went wrong last fall with the "chip seal" of Frazier Mountain Park Road and Cuddy Valley Road between Interstate 5 and Mil Potrero Highway.

The seal is created by spraying a liquid asphalt binder onto the existing asphalt, spreading chipped rock over the binder and using a rolling machine to mash the two together.

On this job, a county contractor, Western Oil Spreading Services, sprayed on the binder and Kern County Roads Department crews laid down the chipped rock "aggregate."

Once the binder cured, the excess rock was swept away and the new surface was painted and ready for drivers, Wood said.

But while it is natural that some small amount of the rock in the new road surface will loosen and roll free over time, in this case Wood estimated about 20 percent more mixed rock came free than usually does.

It was, he said, "enough that aesthetically it bothered me."

It bothered the residents of Pine Mountain Club and Frazier Park as well.

"As you drove on it, it would kick rocks up in the air," Cooper said. "We got multiple strikes on some of the windshields."

Wood said it isn't certain why, exactly, the chip seal was partially defective. It is common procedure and a "time-tested" way to resurface roads cost-effectively.

"We do about 50 miles of this treatment annually," Wood said.

The problem could have been with the materials, it could have been with how they were installed or, Wood said, the project may simply have gotten going too late in the paving season, the time of year when high temperatures create perfect conditions for roadwork.

"It was a little bit cooler than we normally like," Wood said.

The county has not decided whether to pursue legal action to recoup some of those costs from contractors who did work or provided materials for the original chip seal, said Chief Deputy County Counsel Mark Nations.

DAMAGE

In hundreds of claims filed against the county, Cooper's story repeats. Cars hit loose rocks and slingshot the gravel at nearby drivers. Photos of the damage, claims and repair estimates have filled three bankers boxes.

In many photos, vehicle owners point out tiny dings in the windshield glass. But in others, cracks slash across entire windshields and paint jobs are peppered by multiple small dings and scrapes.

Wood said the county tried to get up to the road to regularly sweep the excess rock off it and onto the side of the route.

But Cooper said that didn't do much good.

He said locals learned to drive carefully and stay near the middle line of the road, where there were fewer rocks, but if another driver slid off to one side, the rocks would start flying.

Clint Van Hooser is a car guy who lives in Frazier Park. Three of his vehicles were peppered by rock strikes that chipped paint and broke glass.

"My son's car, which is the (1966 Ford) Ranchero, his window is just spider-webbed all over the place," Van Hooser said.

And his 2005 Chevy Silverado and 2010 Chevy HHR wagon have damaged glass and their paint jobs.

Van Hooser places 99 percent of the blame on the county and the rest with drivers who use the route as a race track, passing impatiently and driving into gravel-heavy areas.

CLEAN UP

Ultimately, the county decided to put a rubberized asphalt slurry seal over the chip seal to lock everything and prevent damage. The original chip seal cost the county $274,000. The slurry seal added an additional $580,000 in costs.

But the county also has to contend with the hundreds of claims from residents, visitors and property owners of the mountain communities.

At first the county rejected claims for compensation. But as the pile of claims mounted, county officials hired a mobile glass replacement company, Autoglass of Bakersfield, to drive up to Frazier Park and replace windshields at a price of about $250 each.

So far the business has replaced 222 windshields at a cost of $52,862, said county claims adjuster Tom Newell.

But that doesn't include glass and auto body work vehicle owners authorized on their own before asking for county reimbursement.

Both the costs of claims and the additional slurry seal will be paid out of the Roads Department budget.

Van Hooser made a claim for $5,000 in damage to the cherry red paint on his Chevy HHR.

County adjusters fixed his vehicles' windows but, he said, have denied his request to fix the paint.

"I'm into cars and motorcycles. It just kills me," Van Hooser said.

He could fight the county in small claims court but, he said, he isn't sure he will make the effort.

"I think it's unfair."

But both he and Cooper are happy about the new overlay.

"They cleaned the road and they sealed the sides and did an asphalt topping," Cooper said.

Now, he said, he can get repairs to his vehicle without worrying the new windshield will be damaged on the drive back home.