chasing pg 1 11-17-22

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Category: Current Issue

caption:
Church Street, Putnam. Linda Lemmon photo.


By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — Despite the higher prices for any petroleum products, a good number of the town’s roads received some TLC, according to Highway Superintendent Travis Sirrine, and there’s a list for roads due for work in the spring.
The price of asphalt went up “significantly,” he said. Hot mix asphalt “went up $12 to $13 per ton” and diesel fuel for the trucks and equipment jumped as well, he said. At one point there was a shortage. All of that affected almost every type of paving or sealing there is.
One bright spot in the high cost extravaganza was that the town locked in the price for chip seal material for this year. “We saved $20 per square yard of applied chip seal,” he said. He’s not sure what prices will look like in the spring. “We don’t know if it will bottom out.”
In general, he said, to stay caught up, at least 10 percent of roads should be maintained each year. The town has 65 miles of roads and it did micro surfacing, rubber/mastic crack seal, emulsion polymer chip seal, overlay paving, milling and paving/road and patch paving on 16-17 miles of roads. He said the amount of chip sealing was higher this year as it was not done last fall.
The May to November roads season was an “uphill battle” as some of the roads have not been done for years. “We’re catching up,” he said. “We got a lot done but there’s still more. For example, all the chip sealing done in 2018 now needs attention.”
Asked if it was like the ongoing maintenance for a house, he said that was a “good analogy.” Like a home, if you don’t stay up on the smaller yearly maintenance projects  you end up with a huge problem down the road. The town is also addressing the Danco bridge priority rebuild.
Most of the road work is paid for by the state’s town aid road program. The rest is handled by the town budget and with some help from the town’s WIN Waste Innovations account.
Next spring, probably after the start of the next fiscal year in July, Kennedy Drive and Massicotte are on the town’s list. Sirrine said the minimum the town would like to get done on Kennedy Drive is from Providence Street to Pomfret Street. If possible he’d also like to redo from the Hale YMCA Youth and Family Center turnoff and maybe get as far as Arch Street. There are several other streets on the list, covering all parts of town.
This year the following was accomplished:
Micro Surfacing: Hurry Hill Rd., .65 miles; Aspinock Rd., .40; Bradley Rd., .16 miles; Decubellis Ct., .1 miles; Paula Rd., .3 miles; Joslin Rd., .22. (total: 1.83 miles)
Rubber/Mastic Crack Seal: Aldrich Rd., Pipkin Rd., Tourtellotte Rd., Five Mile River Rd. (section), Fox Rd. (section), Elmwood Hill Rd., River Rd. (section), Park Rd. (section), W. Thompson Rd., Labossiere Rd., Cottage Rd., Meyers Rd., Auburn Rd., Lafayette Rd., Cloran Rd., Hurlbut Rd., Oak Hill Rd., Dudley Rd., Underwood Rd., Richmond Rd. (section), Mantup Rd., St. James Pl, Brookside Landing, Davis St. (Total: 7.36 miles)
Emulsion Polymer Chip Seal: Alpha St., .1 miles; Groveland Ave., .35 miles; Ross Hill Rd., 31 miles; Nancy Dr., .31 miles; Fox Rd., .79 miles; Five Mile River Rd., .64 miles; Sayle Ave., .77 miles; Wilson Rd., .2 miles; Columbus Rd., .15 miles; Aldrich Rd., .56 miles; St. James Pl., .1 miles; River Rd., 1 mile. (total: 5.93 miles).
Overlay Pave & Mill & Pave/Roads & Sections: Mantup, Ash, Vandale, Powhattan (south), Dufault, Emond, Woodstock Avenue (west), Breault, Hawkins, Arch.
Patch and Pave: Five Mile, Sabin.

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