A big machine operated by Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming of Bloomfield was busy grinding up road surface on Grove Street Tuesday, in preparation for paving expected later in the week. — Macklin Reid photo
“The reclaimer,” the road guys call it.
A gigantic machine crawled down Grove Street Tuesday morning, moving on three caterpillar tracks — two in front, one in back — eating pavement, chewing it up, spitting the digested blacktop remains out through a long mechanical snout and into the back of a dump truck that moved slowly before it.
Men in work helmets and shirts of bright fluorescent safety green danced in attendance, along a couple of smaller machines. Huge 10-wheeler dump trucks waited to do their part.
Road milling work this week by the big machine from Garrity Asphalt of Bloomfield, and the repaving by the contractor Tilcon that will follow, is part of an ambitious road reconstruction agenda the town has undertaken this summer — though, after last winter, no one really expects it will be enough.
“One of the issues after the rough winter we had last year was that the amount of deterioration was significantly greater than what you would have seen if it had been a regular, normal winter,” First Selectman Rudy Marconi said.
“The amount of snow, the amount of salt, the amount of freezing and thawing — all of it contributed.”
The appropriation for road reconstruction and repaving that is in the annual town budget has been on the rise in recent years, as town officials try to catch up on what they recognize is a problem that had started to get beyond what could be done with resources allocated each year.
The road work budgets for the last five years show a steady rise from $950,000 in 2010-11 to $1,850,000 in 2014-15.
“The additional funding will certainly help,” Mr. Marconi said. “But it will be years of work to really improve the overall quality of our roads.”
Work on Grove Street and Ledges Road this week puts the town Highway Department in thick of its second phase of summer road reconstruction this year.
“Paving will be Thursday of this week,” Highway Department Foreman Dave Buccitti said Monday.
Milling and repaving work on the northern half of Grove Street and on Ledges Road is expected to be followed by repaving or “overlay” work on Caudatowa Drive and part of Rock Road.
Two other roads are booked for major reconstruction in the near future.
“We’re going to be reclaiming a portion of Bennett’s Farm, from the firehouse down to Douglas Lane,” Mr. Buccitti said. “We’re going to grind everything down, reclaim and repave it. And we’re going to do the same thing on Short Lane.
“If we get all that finished, we’re going to go down to Silver Spring Road, and do the drainage — make sure it’s all in good order — then we’re going to pave the whole length of Silver Spring.
“I believe it’s better than two miles,” he said. “That’s quite a project to rehab all that.”
When does the department expect that ambitious agenda will be completed?
“It depends on the weather,” Mr. Buccitti said. “Later in the fall, if it looks good.”
The road repaving projects usually begin with drainage work, since water problems left unaddressed will greatly speed the deterioration of a paved roadway.
“We did all new drainage up on Caudatowa Drive and Rock Road,” Mr. Buccitti said. “Ledges is all replacement stuff.”
Mr. Marconi, who had years of experience in construction before taking office as first selectman, explained the different levels of road reconstruction work the town undertakes.
“Milling, the grinder comes in and grinds it down an inch and a half, two inches, and then we repave over that,” he said.
“Reclaiming is when they grind right down into the base of the road, below the pavement, and actually compact that new base and add two new layers — in essence a new road,” he said.
“In reclamation you chew up the whole base right down into the foundation of the road, which is dirt/process plus some of the process under that.”
Private construction work that requires digging up a road — whether or not it’s been recently repaved by the town — can occur anywhere, and it’s hard to predict.
But where it can be predicted, the Highway Department tries to plan accordingly.
For instance, Mr. Buccitti said the milling and repaving of the other southern half of Grove Street is waiting until some construction in the area is completed.
“They’re only doing part of Grove Street because of work planned at Ridgefield Supply,” Mr. Buccitti said.
“No sense paving the road if they’re just going to dig it up again. Maybe next year when everybody’s all finished, we’ll look at doing the rest of it.”
Roads that had reconstruction or repaving projects earlier this year, which are now done, include: Ramapoo Road, Overlook Drive, Farm Hill Road, Nutmeg Court, and Wild Turkey Court.
Those roads total a little over two miles.
“Started in April,” Mr. Buccitti said. “We reclaimed. We milled. We did a lot of drainage replacement. There were a lot of sewer manholes that had to be repaired.
“Two and half months, start to finish,” he said.
Mr. Marconi said town officials face a dilemma.
There are 420 roads in town, running about 168 miles in length.
Only a small portion of them can be rebuilt and repaved each year. Many that need work have to wait. Choosing is tough — especially after a rough winter like the last one..
“Mother nature did not single out specific roads,” he said. “It has an impact on all of our roads.”