Braintree looks to begin next phase of 100 Roads program

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent

Braintree officials are ready to begin the next year of the town’s second 100 Roads Program with a request for $1.7 million in bonds to repair streets.

The funding would be supplemented by nearly $1 million of Chapter 90 money from the state to work on the roads. Additionally, the town hopes to spend $4.9 million on water and sewer projects, funded through the enterprise account, for fiscal 2013 and 2014.

In the first three-year program, which lasted from 2008 through 2010, the town fixed 116 roads.

The town started the second program in 2011, with construction beginning at Liberty Heights, which includes Christina, Fox Hill, and Oak Ledge Drives.

Now, at the conclusion of the first year in the town’s second program, more than 11 miles of roadway, or 30 roads, has been upgraded.

“We’ve done more than we expected. We’ve done, in the first three years, more than 100 roads, and we anticipate doing the same in this phase as well,” said Peter Morin, chief of operations and staff.

Construction on the new group of roads would begin this spring with a centerpiece of the program being the Cedar Street neighborhood.

This 15 road project would includes the installations of water mains and service connections from Cedar Street to Charles Street, to Haven Road, to Home Park Road, to Lowell Street, to Park Street.

It also includes Pleasant Street, School Street, Thorndike Street, White Road, Conrad Street, Holmes Street, and Robert Street.

Russesll Road and Old Elm Street would include full-width reclamation, excavation, grading, and placement of asphalt and would include granite curbing or Cape Cod berms as well as transitions to abutting driveways and streets.

Some other streets’ sidewalks will be reconstructed as well.

Despite the large amount of work the town has done as of late on the roads, some residents still want to know when the town will get to their street.

“It’s always something we’re going to hear. It’s inherent. When people see work being done in other areas, they will ask about their own,” Morin said. “What we have done to meet that demand is dramatically increase the funding and developed a systematic approach where the roads that can be most effectively repaired get addressed first…

“We try to get as much done as efficiently as possible. Sometimes the roads in the worst shape aren’t the ones you tackle first,” Morin said.

Councilors will ask for the bond approval for the project at their next meeting, scheduled for May 15.