Highway Dept. Reports It Was A Good Year For Road Work

By Steve Bigham

The highway department has already paved 17 miles of roads this year and as many as 26 miles of roadwork is scheduled for completion here in Newtown by the end of the year.

Public Works Director Fred Hurley reported the good news at Monday night’s Board of Selectmen meeting, saying good weather, a shift in policy, and better funding have made all the difference.

“Twenty-six miles. That’s 10 percent of our town’s roads,” noted First Selectman Herb Rosenthal. “The selectmen, the council, and the public have been supporting this additional funding in recent years. I think they will continue to support it as long as they continue to see results.”

For the first time in years, according to Selectman Joe Bojnowski, people are actually commenting on how pleased they are with the condition of the town’s roads. Mr Bojnowski has taken on the role of highway department watchdog since becoming a selectmen three years ago.

“It’s been noticed in Newtown,” he said this week. “I’ve gotten a good response from residents.

In recent years, rather than try to reconstruct a handful of problem roads each year, Mr Hurley’s department has focused more on paving and chip sealing in an effort to reach more roads. The policy shift has made a big difference, he said.

But a successful 2000 for roadwork only came about after a very dry autumn, which followed an extremely wet summer.

“We were nervous we were not going to get things done due to all the rain,” Mr Hurley told the selectmen. “The last 6-8 weeks we’ve had relatively dry weather. Contractors and our own guys worked hard to catch up. Eight weeks ago I didn’t think we’d be close.”

This year’s Public Works budget breezed through without so much as a mention from both the selectmen and Legislative Council during budget proceedings last spring. That’s because the $7.2 million Public Works budget did not see significant increases – only about two percent. The big jumps took place the past couple of years when Mr Rosenthal lobbied for additional highway funding to improve the town’s current road situation.

Despite the slight increase, Mr Hurley was armed with the kind of money needed to tackle these problem areas.

“I think we’ll continue to move ahead. What we told the Board of Selectmen and Legislative Council was if we continue to maintain this kind of funding for the next few years, we could be in reasonably good shape,” Mr Hurley predicted back in May.

The following is a list of roads that were (or are being) addressed by the highway department during the 2000-2001 year:

Capital Road Project (large paving jobs)

Crabapple Lane (0.314 miles), Kale Davis Lane (0.227), Leopard Drive (0.3), Mt Laurel Road (0.39), Paugussett Road (0.698), Osborne Hill (1.307), Crown Hill (0.086), Crown View Road (0.09), Pine Tree Hill Road (0.573), Farrell Road (0.925), New Lebbon Road (0.8), Boggs Hill Road (1), Great Quarter Road (0.75), Evergreen Road (0.413), Daves Lane (0.1), Quaker Lane (0.133), Walnut Tree Hill Road (0.25), Palestine Road (0.759), Hanover Road (0.91), Great Ring Road (0.86), Shepard Hill Road (0.4). Remaining – Taunton Lake Road (1.634), Philo Curtis Road (0.2), Narragansett Road (0.05), Tory Lane (0.211), Crestwood Drive (0.203).

Contractual Overlay

Projects

(smaller paving jobs)

Pilgrim Lane (0.278 miles), Castle Meadow Road (0.5), Turkey Hill Terrace (0.388), Mt View (0.22), Grays Plain Road (0.477), High Rock Road (1.631). Remaining – Pole Bridge Road (0.25)

Chip Seal Projects

River Edge Drive (0.158 miles), Bridge End Farm Lane (0.531), Sunnyview Terrace (0.244), Elana Drive (0.315), Old Hawleyville Road (1.245), Black Walnut (0.186), Hitfield Road (0.304), Carol Ann Drive (0.234), Patricia Lane (0.33), Nelson Lane (0.262), Nunnawauk Road (1.167). Remaining – Hundred Acres Road (1.561), Phyllis Lane (0.53), Castle Meadow Road (1.232), Lantern Drive (0.22), Bayberry Drive (0.2).