The town highway department is responsbile for the mainteance
of all town roads. Under the direction of the Superintendent of
Public Works and the Assistant Superintendent, the town employs
17 staff to help the highway department fulfill their responsibilities.
Depending on the season, the town crew focuses their energies
on a variety of differnt responsibilites with the overall goal
of maintaining safe roads.
Summer Maintenance
Town Highway crews during the summer maintain a
busy schedule. Summer maintenance and preventative measures account
for much of the work. The Town contracts out the following road
maintenance work: painting road lines and other pavement marking,
filling road cracks, roadside mowing, cutting of large trees,
spreading liquid calcium chloride for dust control, installing
of guardrail, and crusing of 3,000 yards of gravel material which
is has been removed from the Town Sand and Gravel pit.
The staff of seventeen (17) does roadway retreatment,
gravel road projects, maintenance of the compost site on Holden
Road, excavation in the gravel pit for winter sand and gravel
used for road maintenance and construction, and many other various
duties during the summer months to keep things running smoothly.
Town crews maintain roadside drainage systems. They
regularly clean out catch basins and dig ditches. These catch
basins and ditches along side Town roads are an important part
of the roadway system as they allow for proper drainage from the
road surface. If they are backfilled with yard waste this could
cause road erosion and flooding.
Summer Contruction
During the summer construction season, town highway
crews ensure all the prep work (raising/lowering manholes, constructing
apprpriate drainage systems, and generally facilitating road project
needs) is complete for road paving. The post pavement work is
yet another primary function of this department (e.e.: restoring
driveway aprons, shoulder work, and general roadway landscape
work).
Signs
Another responsiblity of the town highway department
is the installation of all signage on Town roads. The Traffic
Safety Advisory Committee (TSAC) makes recommendations for all
road signs. If you see a broken, vandalized, or missing sign,
please call the highway department. For a request of a new sign
to be posted, please call the Town Engineer's Office, the staff
contact for Traffic Safety
Advisory Committee (TSAC).
Winter Maintenance
In the winter, highway crews concentrate on keeping
roadways clear and safe. For the winter season, the highway department
has two people on duty at night to monitor road conditions and
to clear town and school properties for the morning commute. During
any given storm there are nine trucks out on the road plowing.
Crews are often working as early as 3 a.m. to make roads safe
for morning travel. The department spreads around 2,000 tons of
salt any given year on three different salt truck routes. Ongoing
work to keep the fire hydrants and bridges (Bridge Street - Snowbridge
Road) clear is also necessary.
It is important to note, that the town highway crews
make every effort to make roads safe and passable in the winter,
but often times due to a variety of factors (equipment problems,
exhaustion, severity of storm) the roads are in poor condtion.
During these storm events, please drive safely, obey the winter
parking ban, and be patient.
For your convenience, the Selectboard adopted a
free winter sand policy. This free sand is available to all
town residents for home use only. Please help yourself
and be considerate of your neighbors by taking only 2 or 3 buckets
at a time prior to storm events when there are no lines at the
garage. During storm events, often times the sand runs low
and disappears, so plan accordingly. The highway crews' top priorty
is to maintain town roads at these times, so they are given lenience
if the sand is not replaced. ATTENTION: Sand is available outside
the highway department gate, NOT inside the fence; anyone caught
inside attempting to take sand from the sand shet maybe cited
for unlawful trespass.
Infrasturcture Plans
Below are the Town's five year highway infrastructure
plans. These plans are developed by Town staff at the end of the
summer construction season and are based on a variety of factors.
in order for the town to pave an existing gravel road, it must
be a high traffic road, near existing pavement, and be a maintenance
problem. These infrastructure plans are important in stabilizing
your tax rate. Without these plans, unforseen road projects would
come up unexpectedly and cost more money to fix. These plans are
approved every year by the Selectboard.
The town highway department's commitment to safety and functionality
of Town property and infrastructure is truly what makes this department
so special.
