Rising cost of asphalt puts area paving projects on hold

Highway officials reevaluating what is getting fixed, and when

With almost two years' worth of detours and delays from the extensive $3.8 million reconstruction of East Main Street still fresh in their minds, Georgetown residents may be pleased to hear that some roadwork projects in town are on hold due to the high price of asphalt these days.

But highway department heads across the Merrimack Valley aren't too happy about skyrocketing oil costs that are taking asphalt prices with them this summer, and they are taking a harder look at what gets paved in their communities and when.

"My supplier said the price is going up $6 a ton in July and another $6 in August," said Georgetown's highway surveyor, Peter Durkee, noting that the current price of asphalt is $51.90 a ton.

"Next year the price could go up even more," he said. "We're going to do the minor paving projects that we have to do this year, but I'm going to be holding off on some others until I know how much money I have to spend."

In Georgetown that means the Bailey Lane Bridge remains closed until 2009 state aid figures are finalized and the town's cost of reconstructing the badly worn road culvert can be nailed down, Durkee said.

Other projects are also on hold as Georgetown updates its paving program to keep pace with the rising cost of asphalt, Durkee said.

Ipswich Public Works director Robert Gravino said paving projects there are also being reevaluated as officials finalize a new pavement management plan being drafted this summer to more efficiently manage the town's shrinking highway asphalt budget.

"We're changing how we look at road maintenance because of the way the price of asphalt is going up," Gravino said. "We're going about this more systematically. The cost of asphalt is making road work a huge investment, so the investment now in a road maintenance program only makes sense for the future."

The city hired a consultant to comb its streets in search of potholes and cracked pavement.

A draft report on that survey work was submitted to the city in late June.

That information will be matched with satellite images of town that will be filed in a final report in the next few weeks, Gravino said.

It's expected that final report will help the town assess road maintenance needs on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis rather than on a street-by-street basis, as has been done in the past, said Gravino.

The consulting study cost $25,000, but with $850,000 allocated for Ipswich paving programs, Gravino expects the plan will help spend that money more wisely.

Ipswich only expects to pay $6 more per ton for pavement this year because it just locked in a contract extension from its pavement supplier, Gravino said. However, he worries the price could jump considerably higher when that contract expires, and having a plan in place will help if it does.

"I don't think prices are going to get any better, so we have to adjust to economic conditions now," he said. "With our New England winters we just can't wait out prices and hope they go down. Our roads get too badly damaged too quickly for that."

Haverhill is undertaking a similar study this summer.

It has contracted with the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission, which will have staff canvassing city streets to check on their condition, according to commission transportation planner James Terlizzi .

The information gleaned by the staffers this summer will be compiled into a management plan the city hopes will curb pavement costs now and in the future.

Such plans are getting more attention across the state these days, Terlizzi said, as communities struggle to keep up with spiraling pavement prices.

"Instead of taking a 'worst-first' approach to road maintenance, these communities are taking more of a 'ground-zero' approach," Terlizzi said. "They want to get all the roadways in good condition and work from that point into the future. That may take a large investment in the first couple years, but it will pay off down the road."

The planning commission helped prepare a similar assessment in North Andover about seven years ago, according to town highway department head John Cyr.

The town still relies on that study, Cyr said, and it does not expect increasing asphalt prices will dramatically affect its road maintenance program this year.

That could change next year, Cyr said, depending on how much the state gives communities local paving programs in the 2009 Chapter 90 program administered by the Massachusetts Highway Department.

Most communities in the state depend on state aid to fund some portion of local road maintenance programs.

The 2008 Chapter 90 allotments are up 25 percent over last year, but a large chunk of that increase is being eaten up by higher asphalt costs.

"We're going to use as much asphalt as the state gives us money for," Cyr said. "We certainly have plenty of roads that need it."