Town road crews deal with past and present projects

In one of the county’s most notable still-can’t-get-there-from-here scenes, Goeltz Road in Morristown — which connects Route 100 and Randolph Road — remains closed to through-traffic after last summer’s deluge. Carrie Johnson, the town’s interim manager, said the town had two contractors bid on the project, but one of them said it might not be able to do the work until next year, which Johnson said “is pretty unacceptable.”

The culprit is a large bridge/culvert that bisects the road, and Johnson said the repair is slow in coming, even as work with FEMA “continues to grind forward slowly” in determining what it will cover.

“That’s a really large culvert that we lost. You can’t just go to a culvert store anywhere in this state and get a replacement,” Johnson said.

Stowe

After playing catch-up with flooded-out infrastructure twice last year, Stowe has managed to effectively double its paving budget this year.

The town budgeted $486,000 for paving in the current fiscal year, but, as of earlier this month, had not obligated any of it. Since it budgeted about the same amount for the next fiscal year, this means the town effectively has double that amount to spend during the upcoming warm weather months.

This means Stowe will have almost a million dollars to spend tackling paving projects on Stowe Hollow Road, Sunset and Pleasant streets in the village, Moscow and Lower Barrows roads on the west side of town, and Sylvan Park Road on the south side.

The road crews will also fix the River Road bridge near the old Tubbs Mill and repave Lintilhac Park, known to most folks near and far as the recreation path parking lot behind the iconic Stowe Community Church.

Route 15 and west

Drivers commuting along Route 15 between Cambridge and Johnson may have noticed a few forced pit stops recently.

The Agency of Transportation has begun work to reclaim the corridor — a project that will involve grinding down the road to replace it with a new one, similar to the work done a couple summers ago between Johnson and Hyde Park.

The Route 15 project is estimated to run through this fall and include some work next summer. The state is also adding new culverts and working on ditches along the roadway.

For those who can’t stand construction traffic, Hogback Road remains an option. Don’t get too comfortable, though, as a long-planned culvert replacement in Cambridge on its section of the road is going out to bid soon, according to highway manager Eric Boozan. Work is expected to begin sometime this summer and be completed by September.

Cambridge plans to replace four large culverts this year along with 15 smaller culvert replacement projects and several ditching projects.

Continuing the Upper Pleasant Valley Road paving project that was waylaid last summer by the catastrophic July flooding, Boozan said the town will pave the southernmost section of the road this summer and reclaim and pave the northernmost section of the road.

In Belvidere, a serious sinkhole that closed Bog Road in Belvidere is high on the list of projects, according to town clerk Cathy Mander-Adams. The town also has plans to close Route 109 for a couple days at some point to replace a large culvert, along with a few other culvert replacement projects on the highway and other Class 3 roads.

Johnson roads also took quite a beating this winter, said a member of the road crew, and responding to those issues has pushed back some planned ditching and eventual culvert replacement projects.

Sidewalk installation, curb work and other improvements are planned for the Johnson Street Extension in the village.

Hyde Park road foreman Mark French said he plans to tackle some paving and culvert replacement projects on Centerville Road, for starters.

The Agency of Transportation will be busy in Hyde Park as well, doing maintenance work on a Route 15 bridge just east of the VFW hall.

To the east, north

In Wolcott, the two major projects road foreman Dillan Cafferky has lined up are on Iron Gate Road, a large section of which was wholly obliterated last July, and Town Hill Road.

The town selectboard has discussed not only repairing but relocating Iron Gate Road, which runs alongside the Lamoille River between the end of School Street and Route 15. However, according to minutes from the board’s April 17 meeting, a decision on relocation is needed before the project is submitted to FEMA, and the board agreed to do more research before making a decision at its May 1 meeting.

Meanwhile, paperwork has already been submitted to FEMA for a box culvert replacement on Town Hill Road, the other top priority this year.

Cafferky said he was “knocking on wood” in hopes for a drier 2024.

“Aw, man, I hope so,” he said. “I don’t think I can handle another year like last year.”

Over the hill in Eden, which was spared the worst of last year’s flooding, local road projects are modest in comparison. According to town clerk Melissa Whitcomb, the town is contracting out work for a culvert and bridge project on Boy Scout Camp Road. The Eden highway department will be doing culvert and ditch work on Griggs Road.

“This is all we have that is a definite at this point,” Whitcomb said.

Elmore road commissioner Michel Lacasse said the town declared about $150,000 in damages from the July flooding and nothing at all from December.

The big project for Elmore road crews this year will be re-grading of their portion if Elmore Pond Road, a popular dirt road connecting Route 12 in Elmore with Route 15 in Wolcott.

“That’ll be our big traffic snarl-up,” Lacasse said.

The biggest news of the year for the Elmore highway department is its brand-new garage. Voters approved a $2.5 million loan on Town Meeting Day in 2022 and the town is hosting an open house on May 4, Green Up Day.

“We never thought we’d get to this point, but we’re here and we’re gonna enjoy it,” Lacasse said.