Road Agent Planning a Busy Summer of Maintenance Projects

Choosing carefully to control costs

By Charlie Darling, Beacon staff
Tulips, daffodils, and cleaning the culverts -- it must be spring! The Road Agent's crew is hard at work getting Town roads ready for summer. In this photo, Tiggy Thompson (in the mini-excavator) and Drew LaBonte open up the blocked culvert at the Andover Fish and Game Club on Channel Road in East Andover. Photo: Charlie Darling
Tulips, daffodils, and cleaning the culverts — it must be spring! The Road Agent’s crew is hard at work getting Town roads ready for summer. In this photo, Tiggy Thompson (in the mini-excavator) and Drew LaBonte open up the blocked culvert at the Andover Fish and Game Club on Channel Road in East Andover. Photo: Charlie Darling

Road Agent John “Tiny” Thompson is making plans for a busy summer season maintaining and improving Andover’s roads. Plus, he has a couple of projects moving forward that will help him keep costs under control and maximize what he can accomplish within the maintenance budget that Town Meeting gives him.

Four Road Projects

Monticello Drive: The plan is to grind up about 4,000 feet of the existing asphalt to create a base for the new road; address some drainage issues and re-grade the base; then lay two layers of asphalt to finish the new road.

Old College Road: From Route 11 pretty much to the top of the hill (about 2,500 feet), the edges of Old College Road are crumbling, and the damage is working its way further and further into the roadway. In addition, the drainage needs to be fixed in some spots.

The plan for this summer (after fixing the drainage issues) calls for “shimming”: laying about an inch-thick layer of hot tar — a bit thicker along the sides of the road, a bit thinner up the middle of the road. The shimming will restore the road’s proper level and crown, repair the crumbling edges, and tie the whole road surface together. The shim layer will then get a wear coat of hot oil and either pea stone or sand.

Shaw Hill Road: The plan is for drainage work on this steep road, moving the water more efficiently to keep it from damaging the road and making travel hazardous.

Plains Road: This road was rebuilt within recent memory, so why is it on the list this year? “It’s a good road now,” Tiny says, “but if we ignore it, we’ll wind up having to rebuild it again sooner rather than later.” With some shimming and some patching this year and a fresh wear course next year, Plains Road can stay on Andover’s list of good roads for years to come.

Two Projects to Control Costs

Town Meeting in March approved a plan to convert the Fire Department’s surplus L8000 truck to a Town-owned dump truck with plow and sander. Tiny’s goal is to have that project finished by the end of the summer. His team “only” has to:

  • Shorten the frame
  • Move the rear axle forward on the frame
  • Remove the Fire Department’s pump unit
  • Replace the drive shaft
  • Install all the hydraulics for the plow and the wing
  • Install a dump body

The end result should be a Town asset that will help control road maintenance costs all year ‘round. “It means the Town won’t be paying Thompson Excavating or other local contractors $65 or $85 per hour for a truck and an operator. The Town can run its own truck for maybe $20 an hour, and as a taxpayer myself, that makes me happy.”

The other summer project is a familiar, tried-and-true approach to controlling road maintenance costs: crushing our own gravel at the Transfer Station. The Town will lease rock crushing equipment this summer and the Road Agent’s crew will crush and stockpile about 4,000 cubic yards of material — enough for about two years of road projects around town, and at a cost much less than buying the material and paying to have it trucked to Andover.