FARMINGTON — The job of rebuilding another of the five “worst roads in town,” began this week on Morrison Hill Road, the second crumbling roadway to be rebuilt as part of a five-year project approved by voters last year.
Depending on the weather, Town Manager Richard Davis said, the schedule calls for digging ditches and doing culvert work in early July, then surface grinding at the end of July, followed by laying gravel during August and paving work in September.
Additional Images
The road work is part of a five-year road reconstruction plan approved at the 2013 annual Town Meeting. The plan calls for rebuilding five priority roads in West Farmington: Voter Hill Road, which was rebuilt last year; Morrison Hill Road; Porter Hill Road; the stretch of road known variously as Mowhawk, Seminole and Shawnee Drive; and finally, Titcomb Hill Road.
On Tuesday, a portion of Morrison Hill Road was closed, starting with the intersection near Voter Hill Road, so work crews could replace a large culvert near the Wilton town line.
Davis said the road work’s effect on the property tax rate for this year has yet to be calculated, though he estimated last year’s work on Voter Hill Road accounted for about 25 cents per $1,000 of valuation, or $25 on a $100,000 home.
At the time, selectmen decided that the state Urban Rural Initiative Program was not providing enough money to keep up with the road repairs, and a policy of deferred maintenance has left some of the roads in extreme disrepair.
After the five-year plan is complete, selectmen probably will consider again which roads are next on the list for capital improvement.
But Davis said none of the roads to be added to the list is expected to be as bad or to need the level of rebuilding of the roads on the “five worst” list.
“Once we’ve got the major road work done, the other roads will need maintenance, but not this level of work,” he said.
Kaitlin Schroeder — 861-9252
Copy the Story Link
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.