RoadPacker distributor Bob Sherwin is paying about $35,000 out of his own pocket to re-treat Spur Ranch Road with chemicals designed to harden the surface of the dirt road and reduce dust, washboarding and mud.

Residents who live on the road paid about $41,000 to have the RoadPacker Plus product applied in the road in October. But, Sherwin said, the product didn't set up correctly because a batch of clay imported for the project didn't have the right chemical makeup. The road hardened but continued to get muddy after rain and snow, which alarmed some of the residents who had pitched in for the fix.

Sherwin has already spent about $18,000 trying to blade the road and add crushed gravel to help dry it out. That worked until it rained, when the road became muddy again.

Sherwin said he trucked in about 1,200 tons of new soil for the second application and had it tested to make sure it has all the correct properties to work with the RoadPacker Plus formula of chemicals.

"I had promised the residents here we would redo it, and that's what we are doing," Sherwin said, "at our cost."

Michael A. McDermott, the owner of RoadPacker Group Ltd., left his hospital bed in Manila — where he was recovering from surgery on his leg — to come to Eldorado to oversee the reapplication of the product.

"I came to correct a mistake, that is all," said McDermott, whose Canada-based business has been manufacturing RoadPacker Plus for 22 years.

"This happens very seldom, and when it does it's usually pilot error," he said.

Jim Garland, president of the Spur Ranch Road Association, said he still has faith in the product, and believes Sherwin and McDermott will make sure the road is fixed.

"They are committed," Garland said. "In my opinion, this is going to be their showpiece road. There is a lot at stake, and they are determined to get it right."

Sherwin and McDermott both have a lot riding on the reputation of the road-hardening formula.

Though it's been used for years in other parts of the world — including extensively in South Africa and China — RoadPacker is fairly new to the United States market.

McDermott said he intended to begin marketing the product in the United States in a few years, but that Sherwin approached him about beginning to distribute it in New Mexico last year. The men have also had discussions about making Santa Fe the United States headquarters for the product and manufacturing it here.

They have meetings scheduled with representatives from the state Department of Transportation this week to discuss the product and try to get into the state's product-evaluation program.

Sherwin is also negotiating with the director of the North Central Regional Transit District to apply the product to a parking lot at the district's headquarters in Española.

The road redo is supposed to be finished Monday. Whether the reapplication is successful should be known after the next rain.

Contact Phaedra Haywood at 986-3068 or phaywood@sfnewmexican.com.