Date: Fri 20-Nov-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

roads-Hurley-paving

Full Text:

Town Looks To "Political Paving" In The Face Of Budget Constraints

BY STEVE BIGHAM

Some people call it "political paving" -- a quick fix for town roads that

generate complaints from taxpayers. But Fred Hurley believes it is the only

way to save Newtown's dilapidated roadways.

According to the director of public works, there is simply not enough time or

money to do reconstruction on all of Newtown's troubled roads. Instead, he has

recommended the town consider doing more resurfacing in order to hold these

roads together.

Mr Hurley met with the Board of Selectmen Monday night to provide a status

report on the road improvement program. The "paving instead of reconstructing"

method was recommended during a recent public works management study conducted

by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.

"We're never going to have enough capital money quick enough to address all

these roads," Mr Hurley said. "It will take an awful lot of years before we

can get to all 240 miles of road."

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal agreed with the highway department's plan.

"In an ideal world, we would reconstruct, however, we don't have the money to

do that," he said.

A band aid approach? To a certain extent, said Mr Hurley, but it is one that

will help keep Newtown's roads in working order. Paving still works. It's not

like reconstruction, but it is effective, he said. Highway crews only recently

began work on Hanover Road, but it was several years late.

"If we did not do paving a few years ago, we may have lost Hanover just like

we did Scudder Road. It went completely," said Mr Hurley. "We had to spent

hundreds of thousands of dollars in unanticipated funds to get it back."

Mr Hurley said the town would have already finished Huntingtown, Great Ring,

Great Quarter, Hanover and Boggs Hill roads if the town had been able to spend

another $2 million the past couple of years.

"We had some tough economic times for a while. The capital roads got cut," he

said.

In total, the town's highway department has received about $10 million

compared to a requested $18 million over the past 10 years. Mr Hurley said he

would need about $30-40 million to get Newtown's roads up to a B-plus or

A-minus rating.

Selectman Bill Brimmer suggested the town place more of the responsibility for

paving on the developers. Mr Hurley said that would be one approach to

consider.

Town Engineer Ron Bolmer noted that developers pave their subdivisions, then

the town has to go back and fix their mistakes afterwards.

Mr Hurley said some of the town's lesser traveled roads are not under the same

kind of pressure. You can throw some asphalt on those and get away with it, Mr

Hurley said. It is not the same on the main arteries.

Reconstruction is expensive, but Newtown still does it much more cheaply than

the state's Department of Transportation. It cost the town $350,000 per mile

to reconstruct a roadway. That same length costs the state $1 million.

The department is also using box culverts to speed up its bridge repairs, Mr

Hurley said. The highway department used to build concrete forms for bridge

head walls. That took far too long.

Crack seal, a rubber substance used to fill cracks in roads, is also an

effective measure in keeping roads in order until total reconstruction can be

done.

This year's public works budget includes $1.8 million for capital road

improvement work.