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08/16/2016 03:23 PMNow in the new fiscal year, the town is preparing to kick off its road-paving program. Beginning with Colonial Road and Hunters Trail this week, the town is trying to cover as much ground as possible this year.
Pavement reclamation of Colonial Road from Warpas Road to Overbrook Road and Hunters Trail from Route 79 east to the dead end began the week of Aug. 15. Both roads will be completely redone, according to First Selectman Tom Banisch.
“There are two techniques” for repaving, Banisch said. “One is called mill and overlay, where they grind up the top surface and then pave over it like they do on the highway. The other one is called total reclamation, which is where they dig up the road down to the dirt and start all over again.”
Colonial and Warpas roads will be totally reclaimed for approximately $220,000, according to Banisch.
“To totally reclaim it costs almost double as just mill and overlay,” he said.
While those two roads will be completely rebuilt, Banisch said the town is looking to improve many other roads around town as well through mill and overlay.
“The plan is to do a bunch of mill and overlay projects to generally upgrade the quality of a lot of roads in town,” he said. “It is pretty ambitious, but we are going to get to a lot of the problem roads.”
While an offical schedule has not been set, problem roads on the town’s list this year include sections of Copse Road, Fort Path Road, Lovers Lane, and River Road among others. Banisch said the town will continue to contract with Tilcon for paving and will work as long as the season allows.
“We are going to pave as long as we can,” he said. “They stop making asphalt at some point once it gets cold, so what they don’t finish will be picked back up in the spring.”
To finance road paving, Banisch said the town draws on a variety of funding sources.
“The road jobs are done with a combination of Capital Improvement Plan [CIP] money and some other budget items like money we get from the state,” he said. “We draw from those as well as CIP.”
Overall, Banisch said he thinks this is one of the more aggressive road paving projects undertaken by the town.
“I know it has been a priority to get a lot of road done and this is over seven miles of road,” he said.