Date: Fri 22-Mar-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

roads-sewers-Hurley

Full Text:

Winter And Sewers Leaves Roads A Mess

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Spring officially began this week but the severe winter, coupled with

Newtown's continuing sewer project, has left a legacy of potholes on many

well-traveled roads.

Public Works Director Fred Hurley, accompanied by John Whitten and Michael

Anderson of Fuss & O'Neill, the town's sewer firm, told Legislative Council

this week that roads which are being sewered can only be temporarily patched

until all of the work is complete. Queen Street, for example, still needs

drainage work, which will be done by the town, and a new water main, which

will be installed by the water company, before permanent paving can be done

late this summer.

Mr Whitten told the council that part of the problem on Queen Street this

winter was a break in a water main which leaked 100 gallons a minute for a

month before a section of the road collapsed and the leak was discovered and

fixed.

Potholes on Church Hill Road at the I-84 overpass were temporarily covered

with steel plates until the State Department of Transportation objected. Now

the holes are filled with patch, a process which has to be done daily, Mr

Whitten said.

Councilman Jack Rosenthal asked why $1.5 million of the $2 million allocated

for roadwork this year has been spent yet 11 of the 19 roads identified for

roadwork had not been touched. The roads are mostly those which will have

sewer mains on them.

Mr Hurley said the town has about $700,000 left in money and materials, enough

to complete the work required on those 19 roads. In several cases it turned

out that anticipated work did not need to be done on those roads, so the town

was able to use that money to complete projects on other non-sewered roads

such as Buttonshop, Old Green and Horseshoe Ridge, he said.

Mr Hurley said because the sewer mains are installed very deep in the road and

require lateral lines to reach the houses, drainage cannot be installed until

the sewer work is completed. In some cases gas and water main work also has to

be done.

"After the mains and the laterals are in, the roads have to be left to settle

for about six months before they can be paved," he said.

Mr Hurley said the town could only estimate two years ago how much the work on

the sewered roads would cost "because we never know when we will hit ledge, or

what will happen when the roads and 30 to 40-year-old pipes are dug up."

Sometimes the work costs more than has been estimated, but other times it

turns out that the work is not required because the sewer project eliminates

the need, he said.

Mr Rosenthal said if the town was allocating $2 million a year on roadwork,

the public works director should be able to more accurately determine in

advance exactly where it will be spent.

The town has a five-year $10 million road plan which calls for the expenditure

of approximately $2 million a year. Mr Hurley has estimated that to upgrade

all town roads would require an expenditure of about $60 million.