If the town of Jaffrey is to maintain the quality of its roads, an additional $245,700 per year is needed for paving.
Dan Romero, a University of Maine student working with the town’s Department of Public Works, presented a pavement management assessment to the Select Board on Monday. Using a software platform known as PAVER, Romero found that much more money needs to be devoted every year to taking care of roads.
“The town needs to determine how to at least maintain the current road conditions,” said DPW Director Randy Heglin. “The biggest outcome of this assessment is that $350,000 per year isn’t enough.”
The assessment analyzed all town-owned, paved roads in town, and assigned a pavement condition index (PCI) to each road, which was based out of 100. Roads were examined for nine types of distresses, with the worst 100 feet per thousand reflected in the PCI.
The assessment found that if the town continues to spend $350,000 on paving every year, the roads will dramatically deteriorate. To maintain the road conditions over the next 15 years, a budget of $595,700 is needed; to eliminate all sections of roadway that are listed as critical, the town would need to spend $820,000 per year for the next 10 years.
Heglin said the assessment was a great place to start, and that the town should continue to update the assessment every couple years.
The board asked Heglin to develop a priority list for the roads based on the assessment.
The board also listened to an assessment of the town’s wastewater assets, as presented by Tighe & Bond’s John McClellan.
McClellan’s study analyzed all of the town’s wastewater assets, determining the likelihood and the consequences of failure.
McClellan proposed nine projects to be completed, totaling $1.6 million. Of those nine projects, one was listed as high risk: a $240,000 sewer renewal project targeting 2,200 feet of gravity sewer along Peterborough Street.
The remaining project were all listed as important, and included replacing sewer pipe, installing a safety shower, numerous electrical improvements, replacement of HVAC equipment, constructing a new two bay garage at the administration building, and more.
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com. He is also on Twitter @nhandyMLT.