Roads ACT has started trialling microsurfacing, also known as slurry seal, as an alternative to the traditional methods of bitumen and crushed stone or expensive asphalt.

The technique has been trialled on Bowen Drive in Barton to reduce traffic noise and at car parks in Charnwood, Hawker and Kaleen to create a more shopping trolley-friendly surface.

Minister for Territory and Municipal Services Shane Rattenbury said microsurfacing might be a future alternative at car parks or areas of high-speed traffic close to residential areas, while asphalt would be saved for areas of greater impact.

He said slurry seal was a cost-effective method that would be trialled and monitored for about one year.

"Chip seal is about $11 per square metre, asphalt is between $50 and $80 per square metre. [Microsurfacing] costs more than chip seal but a lot less than asphalt - it's $16-20 dollars a square metre," he said.

"We probably won't go for a large-scale application in the city until we get a better feel for how it lasts here - 12 months is usually the timeframe, 12 to 24 months will give us a really good sense of whether it's going to last or not."

With the ACT Government aiming to reseal five per cent of the territory's 6,300 kilometres of road each year, asphalt was too expensive to use in all circumstances.

Although microsurfacing would have to be combined with chip seal to ensure roads remained waterproofed, it would still be more cost effective.

Consequently, the Bowen Drive microsurfacing was applied to an existing reseal.

"The interesting thing with the slurry seal, it doesn't actually waterproof the road. When water gets in we get pot holes and break downs [so], you have to still chip seal underneath," he said.

"The overall cost of [a combination of chip and slurry seal would be] $27 to $31 per square metre. There's a bit of a double-cost issue there which we're working at. That's all part of the performance testing at the moment.

"We would still chip seal [alone] in some places - there's no reason you wouldn't do it on the Federal Highway, for instance, there are no houses out there. The asphalt tends to be used on high impact places [such as] intersections."

Residents currently unhappy with loose gravel at existing resurfaced car parks may find smoother seal used there also.