(June 22, 2017) Construction on West Street in Berlin will take a break as things literally settle, then pick back up in a few weeks, according to Town Administrator Laura Allen.
Allen said the town hand-delivered letters to residents tfrom Broad Street to Abbey Lane last week, letting them know they hadn’t been forgotten.
At first glance, she said, it will look like nothing is happening there.
“The project is still ongoing, but given the nature of the road, we’re letting the paving work that we’ve done so far settle,” Allen said. “There are some interesting mixtures of cement and asphalt under the road that we can see and there’s some concern about how those two elements will perform once we do a final paving.”
She said measures were taken to ensure “a really high quality final product.” These included getting quotes on laying a paving fabric to improve the structural integrity of the road.
That will require about a month-long pause in work, Allen said, following by filling any remaining holes, leveling and grading the road, and installation of the fabric, which creates a moisture barrier designed to extend the life of the roadway and reduce cracking.
A final paving would then be done over the fabric. Allen said the town was about a week or two into the waiting period.
“Ultimately, we think it’s really going to provide a nicer final product that’s really going to last,” she said. “I think it’s a good investment for the long run in terms of the ability of that road to weather the traffic and the weather conditions.”
The project started several months ago as a series of stormwater upgrades, but when workers opened up the road they found issues with utilities.
“It was a stormwater failure, so we’re getting in and repairing it before it collapsed,” Allen said. “In that process we found water and sewer connections that needed to be repaired and we also found some pipes in the road we weren’t quite sure of, so we had to do some testing and monitoring.
“Unfortunately that’s resulted in this kind of weird patching and to fill that in with the cement on the other side of the road, we think, is really going to result in a nice, final product,” she continued. “You never know what you’re going to find when you open the road.”
When work starts again, Allen said additional road closures would occur, but she was unsure of the timeline. She hoped all the work on West Street would wrap by late summer.
Allen said the town hand-delivered letters to residents tfrom Broad Street to Abbey Lane last week, letting them know they hadn’t been forgotten.
At first glance, she said, it will look like nothing is happening there.
“The project is still ongoing, but given the nature of the road, we’re letting the paving work that we’ve done so far settle,” Allen said. “There are some interesting mixtures of cement and asphalt under the road that we can see and there’s some concern about how those two elements will perform once we do a final paving.”
She said measures were taken to ensure “a really high quality final product.” These included getting quotes on laying a paving fabric to improve the structural integrity of the road.
That will require about a month-long pause in work, Allen said, following by filling any remaining holes, leveling and grading the road, and installation of the fabric, which creates a moisture barrier designed to extend the life of the roadway and reduce cracking.
A final paving would then be done over the fabric. Allen said the town was about a week or two into the waiting period.
“Ultimately, we think it’s really going to provide a nicer final product that’s really going to last,” she said. “I think it’s a good investment for the long run in terms of the ability of that road to weather the traffic and the weather conditions.”
The project started several months ago as a series of stormwater upgrades, but when workers opened up the road they found issues with utilities.
“It was a stormwater failure, so we’re getting in and repairing it before it collapsed,” Allen said. “In that process we found water and sewer connections that needed to be repaired and we also found some pipes in the road we weren’t quite sure of, so we had to do some testing and monitoring.
“Unfortunately that’s resulted in this kind of weird patching and to fill that in with the cement on the other side of the road, we think, is really going to result in a nice, final product,” she continued. “You never know what you’re going to find when you open the road.”
When work starts again, Allen said additional road closures would occur, but she was unsure of the timeline. She hoped all the work on West Street would wrap by late summer.