ADAMS – At first glance, you may be wondering: Are crews finished repaved Park Street?
In fact, they are, and frugality, convenience, and the motto “if you don’t waste, you want for nothing” all have something to do with it.
Adams’ main thoroughfare will receive a two-tone asphalt layer in the summer and fall of 2024, with a new surface in the middle. However, the parking lots with the previous asphalt layer will remain unchanged.
Motorists drive on Park Street in Adams. The road was recently repaved, and residents are wondering if the two-tone asphalt appearance is temporary or permanent.
The new look isn’t popular across Adams, at least not if social media posts are to be believed, but city officials say the plan is the fiscally responsible alternative to a much more expensive and time-consuming attempt to rebuild the busy street from end to end.
The situation also shows that state transportation funding for cities and towns under the U.S. Chapter 90 program is failing communities with infrastructure needs, city officials said.
“We only get $280,000 a year under federal law to maintain 55 miles of roads. If you break that down, that’s about $5,000 a mile,” said City Administrator Jay Green. “$5,000 a mile isn’t much use when a ton of asphalt costs about $100 a ton.”
The decision came after initial bids for the project, which originally called for completely rebuilding Park Street from curb to curb, topped $1 million – significantly more than the city could afford, said Christine Hoyt, vice chair of the Green and Select Board.
“We don’t have that money,” Green said.
The decision not to completely pave the road was made after initial bids for the project exceeded $1 million – significantly more than the city could afford.
This led to the decision to “mill and fill” the lanes and postpone a full reconstruction of the street until later, it said. In total, the work cost $433,695, and the city saved another $35,000 to $60,000 by having its own public works department remove old streetcar tracks at the south end of Park Street.
Hoyt and Green both said they had heard from Park Street business owners about the concerns a complete closure would have on downtown commerce. It made more sense to limit disruption and fix what was broken rather than tearing up the whole street, they said.
“Why would you tear up the perfectly good asphalt on the parking lanes when asphalt costs a fortune and we hardly get any funding for it?” Hoyt said.
The city funded the work with $100,000 of its own capital funds set aside at the 2023 Annual City Meeting, $190,314 from the fiscal year 2022 shared streets grant, and $143,381 from Chapter 90.
The last time Park Street was completely repaved, crews did not remove the bricks, sand and rocks that were in the roadbed beneath the pavement. Those will have to be removed at some point, and the city will need a long-term plan for the work, Green said.
In total, the work on Park Street cost $433,695, and the city saved an additional $35,000 to $60,000 by having its own public works department remove old streetcar tracks at the south end of Park Street.
The work will be put out to bid in the spring, along with sidewalk accessibility improvements on Columbia Street near Columbia Valley Apartments and Adams Memorial High School. JH Maxymillian is the general contractor.
Hoyt said she testified on behalf of the Massachusetts Municipal Association before Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll’s Cabinet about Chapter 90 funding.
At an annual Chapter 90 financing rate of about $280,000, “it would take us eight and a half years to save up enough money for that one mile of road,” Hoyt said. “I think we would be in far bigger trouble than it looks if we waited that long.”
“It’s a statewide problem,” Green added. “The feedback from every city and town is that Chapter 90 is underfunded. Berkshire’s elected delegation knows it, MassDOT knows it. These things need to be addressed.”
