sooo pg 1 9-21-23

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Category: Current Issue

Sooooo
many
projects
finished
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- Despite weather generally better suited for ducks, Travis Sirrine, the DPW's highway superintendent, was pleased with the number of projects the highway department was able to accomplish.
And he's in the homestretch --- weather permitting.
The crews will bring the chipper through town for the brush and tree limbs starting next week. When that's finished he anticipates going back to paving before the leaf vacs gear up at the end of October. Leaf vacuuming involves the whole crew, he said.
On tap before the leaf vacs are paving portions of David, Riverside and possibly Roosevelt streets. The streets will be cleaned, then "tacked" (liquid asphalt in the cracks) and then overlaid, he said.
At the end of September, he said, manhole covers on the portion of Kennedy Drive that was resurfaced, plus those on Dufault Street and Woodstock Road near Senexet Road will be reset. "We will bring them to grade," he said. He estimated there are 16 "give or take" that will be reset.
"Even with the rain," he said, he's happy with the amount of work that was done this year. "The crew did great," he said. Many town roads were redone including many on the north side of town.
One of the more noticeable --- and interesting --- projects was the resurfacing of part of Kennedy Drive. In July the Highway Rehab Corp., of Brewster, N.Y., brought three long machines to do hot, in-place asphalt recycling. Most of each vehicle consisted of a long low deck that shot flames at the road surface. The three vehicles were in tight formation. Each one made the asphalt progressively softer. At the back of the last vehicle were rakes that “fluffed up” the soft asphalt. A screed then flattened the asphalt. A road roller followed.  At the time, Sirrine said “And using this old asphalt is better than using new,” he said. The old asphalt holds up better and is a better quality than today’s new asphalt. The project started at the gas station at Riverview Commons shopping plaza and goes to the intersection of Rt. 44 and Kennedy Drive. Because a new gas line will be going in near the gas station, the town stopped the resurfacing just before the gas station.
Sirrine said using that method saved the town $50,000 to $60,000. That project covered about a half mile.

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