Above: Road construction done a few years back on Latisquama. The DPW announced more projects beginning last week. That and readers’ questions prompted me to follow up on other work being done (or not) on town roads. (Photo by Susan Fitzgerald)
Some readers have asked met to get answers to their questions related to town roads. Department of Public Works Director Karen Galligan obliged.
Q: [Will Town streets be swept to cleanup from winter debris?]
A: “Yes – most of the Town is done – need to finish up Fayville – were working on that [last] week – we had a contractor in and are working on it ourselves as well.”
Q [Excerpts from a comment on the blog]: “It looks like many roads including Rt 85 on the south of town have been all marked with orange paint in areas where the pavement has deteriorated badly. Some of it has been repaired, but many spots all over have not.” . . .
“Can anyone say when those marked spots will be done? are the state contractors trying to dodge and skip spots they were intended to repair”
A: “Route 85 is our road – not state. We marked some bad areas on Cordaville and Main Street for repair, Band-Aids, with funding from Governor Baker’s Winter Recovery Money. The marked areas were 1.5 times as much money as we had for the work, so we had to do decrease the amount of work that we outlined. Both Streets, Main Street and Cordaville Road, are in need of long term repair. The Band-Aid work is to get us through to the larger project.
The Main Street project is scheduled for FY 17, which means construction will be in 2017.
Cordaville Road is currently being surveyed and, once a base plan with some improvements is developed, we will meet with residents and the Selectmen to work with the plan and then get funding for the work. The public meeting should be this fall. Funding source and timing will be based on the public meetings.”
Q: Readers have asked questions pertaining to repairs of winter road damage. You just posted about road repair work scheduled [to begin last] week. Are there any other roads coming up slated for work that I can share?
A: Winter road damage money had to be spent by June 30. That is the Band-Aid work I described above on Cordaville Road and Main Street. The work is completed and we have submitted for reimbursement.
Can I ask why the balance of the money needed to finish the band aid was not requested in the town meeting. We seemed to have gotten the new truck approved just fine.