Layers of repairs are visible in July 2024 on Jewett Road in Pittston. The Pittston Board of Selectmen have filed suit against Sam Snow Construction over work performed by the company, which is owned and operated by the town’s road commissioner. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

PITTSTON —  Town officials are seeking almost $2 million from its road commissioner’s construction company to redo a town road the company originally repaired.

Sam Snow, the town’s elected road commissioner, takes care of other roads in town with his company, Sam Snow Construction Inc., and repaired Jewett Road in 2019.

The lawsuit, filed in Kennebec County Superior Court, alleges that defects in the company’s work has caused a multitude of issues, including premature pavement failure and excessive washouts.

Engineers have estimated repairing the road will cost about $1.8 million. Town officials are alleging a breach of contract, a breach of warranty, and they are seeking the money they believe they are owed.

Cathy Thomas, who was recently elected chair of the Pittston Board of Selectmen, said it’s a no-win situation.

“There isn’t anything to comment on the complaint letter that was sent out other than it’s very upsetting we were put in a position between the town paying 100% of the repairs or trying to work something out with the company that did the work,” Thomas said.

The Pittston Board of Selectmen voted March 9 to file suit against Snow.

The three members of the board at the time, including former select board chair Jane Hubert, said they did not want to sue Snow, but they felt it was the only way they could move forward without taxpayers fronting the cost. The lawsuit was officially filed March 28 by the town’s attorney, Theodore Small.

The town hired Snow’s company in April 2019 to repair the road. The entire process took until mid-July 2019.

Snow’s company was contracted to perform extraction work, deliver subbase and base material that would act as a road base and compact the road to prepare it for paving. Another contractor, under Snow’s direction, paved the road after Snow prepared the subsurface. Snow then prepared another section of the road in 2020, the document states, and by spring 2021, the road began to  fail, settle and experience excessive washouts.

“The town relied on Snow’s expertise in having Snow perform the work it was engaged to perform and in providing directions and specifications to the paving contractor,” the lawsuit says.

The two engineering firms that surveyed the road both recommend a complete reconstruction of the road that would entail the removal of the pavement and repaving the road, totaling around $1.8 million.

In the reports, the firms both agreed the problems from Jewett Road are a result of poor drainage, frost action,  poor construction and compaction of the roadway subsurface due to Snow’s work.

“In particular, but without limitations, Snow used gravels for the base and subbase that has an unacceptable high fines content. These base and subbase materials have high frost susceptibility and poor drainage characteristics. Correcting the defective Jewett Road work will require removal of the pavement, reconstruction of the road base and subbase and repaving of the road,” the suit states.

Snow could not be reached for comment Wednesday. When contacted in mid-March after the Board of Selectmen voted to file the lawsuit, Snow said he did not know anything about it.