Road Advisory Committee
ROAD ADVISORY COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes, Sept 10, 2020 6:00 PM
Present: Chair William Holder; Members Terry Thompson, Ann Neuburg; Highway Superintendent Ben Metcalf, Town Administrator Sherry Patch, Advisory Committee liaison Jon Fudeman
Guests: Paul Lyons, Highway Superintendent for Town of Sterling, Greg Russell, VHB
6:02 PM Call to order at Senior Center and GoToMeeting.
Administrative: review of the previous meeting’s minutes postponed to the next meeting.
Project activity chart: review project activity chart for Leominster Road, Route 140, Coal Kiln Road culverts, Coal Kiln Road roadway, Ball Hill Road culvert, and engineering for Worcester Road, including dates when bids should be advertised.
140 project/cooperation with Sterling: Paul Lyons, Highway Superintendent for Town of Sterling requested the RAC to consider an alternative for the planned rebuild of 1000 feet of 140 near NEADs. The 1000 feet are in the middle of 2 sections totaling 8400 feet that Sterling will mill and overlay. In addition, NEADs (and maybe a few homes) are served by a 1950s 8” waterline that originates in and is operated and maintained by Sterling.
Mr. Lyons proposes to mill and overlay Princeton’s 1000 feet when Sterling does their 8400 feet. The proposed work on Princeton’s 1000 feet includes replacement of a culvert, and current estimate includes the economies of scale created by the overall larger project.
VHB presents SAM pavement inventory: Greg Russell of VHB presented an overview of Smart Asset Management (SAM), a software system that enables towns to create and maintain inventories of roads, bridges, and culverts.
SAM creates a town-specific database of road assets and conditions to help towns optimize their most costly asset: the roads. Initial startup costs are $15K - $20K. Costs to create the initial pavement inventory are ~ $15K - $20K and should be repeated every 2 – 3 years. VHB hosts the town’s data. The data is owned by the town.
Sherry Patch thought there may be IT grants available, but not during COVID when there are other pressing IT needs.
Ball Hill Road culvert: Discussion of the impact of spans below 20 feet.
Motion: To stipulate the span of the Ball Hill Road culvert replacement and future projects as 20.5 feet or greater as necessary in order to be eligible for federal funding.
Vote: unanimous Aye.
Motion: To approve the contract amendment with CEI for $9,200 to amend the applicable drawings for the Ball Hill Road culvert project.
Vote: unanimous Aye.
Shared Streets grant award: Sherry Patch announced an award of $40,791.
Complete Streets policy draft: Revision 5.0 of Chairman Holder’s draft approved and submitted to Sherry Patch (see Referenced Documents).
RAC presents to Selectboard: RAC will make their annual presentation to the Selectboard in October. Bill presented documents he will reference (see Referenced Documents)
Jon Fudeman (Advisory Committee) asked for clarification for 081920 Road Math.
Police Detail expense Highway Barn bridge: Superintendent Metcalf met with the contractor (Vergillio) and amended the design to help defray the expected expense. There will be no onsite engineer’s office and granite curbstone was removed from the design.
Adjourn 7:48
Respectfully Submitted: Ann Neuburg
Referenced Documents: