Aetna Street has been added to the streets receiving water main upgrades, as part of an extensive water project in downtown Jaffrey.
In March, the town approved $2.84 million for water main improvements on Stratton Road, School Street and Squantum Road.
The town also included possible upgrades for Aetna Street, Lawrence Street and Wheeler Street, a neighborhood located off of Stratton Road, but the original bid for the project suggested there wouldn’t be enough funds.
As construction completes on the Squantum Road portion of the project, it appears there will be enough left over, combined with funds already in the town’s water capital reserve, to complete an upgrade of Aetna Street’s four-inch pipes, which were installed in 1920, to eight-inch pipes, Randall Heglin, Jaffrey’s director of public works said in an interview Wednesday.
The total cost of the upgrades for the street is estimated to cost $336,000.
Part of the reason the town is eager to complete the work on Aetna Street, Heglin said, is because the road needs repaving.
“The paved road is a complete failure, and we’d like to go in and pave the road, but I’d like to get all the underground infrastructure done first,” Heglin said.
Heglin said the timing of the work on Aetna Street depends upon the completion of the work on Squantum Road and the schedule of the contractor. Heglin said he expects the Squantum Road work to take another month, which means the installation of the pipes on Aetna Street may not begin until Spring.
Heglin said there will be detours during the Aetna Street project, but residents who live on the road will be able to access it through Lawrence Street.