Department of Public Works

Post date: Aug 31, 2018 4:10:2 PM

2018 summer season “highlights”

HIGHWAY/PARKS/FACILITIES/CEMETERIES

Paving Projects:

Upper Luce Road reclamation is well under way having the existing road ground in place to a depth of 8 inches, graded to create proper road pitch then compacted. The asphalt binder layer has been paved in to a depth of 3 inches plus. The final top course of asphalt is scheduled to be paved in September.

Lower Petersburg Road has been lowered by 6 inches, graded to shape and compacted to make room for the installation of asphalt scheduled to take place in September. This is a month behind schedule due to the rainy summer season which has paving contractors scrambling.

Thornliebank Road and Thornliebank Circle are scheduled for milling and asphalt paving to be performed in conjunction with Petersburg.

The asphalt sidewalk, curbing and driveway aprons on Maple Street have been removed and replacement will be completed by September 7^th .

Pavement preservation:

Crack Sealing has been completed on Bridges Road, Frenier Drive, Hamel Street, Harwood Street, North Hoosac Road, Sand Springs Road and Sycamore Drive.

North Hoosac Road from Cole Avenue to the North Adams boundary has been treated with a polymer modified sealant, AKA “fog sealing” at a cost of $1.40 per square yard. This section of road went through a full reclamation in 2015 at a cost of $27.00 per square yard for a total of $453,760.00. Fog sealing will protect that investment. The roads in Westlawn Cemetery were also treated with a sealant.

Drainage:

Outdated rusty old and failing galvanized corrugated metal culvert pipes have been replaced on Hopper road (2), Knolls Road, Northwest Hill Road, Roaring Brook road, Petersburg Road, and upper Luce Road (3).

Catch Basins have been repaired or replaced on Belden Street, Benlise Drive, Berkshire Drive, Bulkley Street, Cole Ave, Maple Street, South Street, Stratton Road, Thornliebank, and upper Luce Road.

Buildings:

The main building at the transfer station has had all of the rotting, bug invested rough cut siding removed. The building has been wrapped with Tyvek weather barrier. The metal flashing has been installed and the new metal siding will be installed in September.

The roofing has been replaced on the shed at the House of Local History and has been painted.

The underground heating oil storage tank at the Milne Library has been removed.

Five recycled plastic picnic tables have been placed in the Spruces Park on top of concrete slabs.

General maintenance:

Roadside mowing, crosswalk painting, tree removal, storm drain cleaning, watering flowers, weekend trash pickup, gravel road grading, signage, etc..

Training:

Six Highway Department employees have completed their OSHA – 10 training.

Digital Cemetery Records Project:

The Town is wrapping up a project to convert its antiquated index card and paper map based cemetery records to a web based digital records management system. Some 13,825 interment cards and maps of all three cemeteries have been scanned and converted to populate a web-accessible database. Users will be able to search cemetery records online and display selected cemetery plots on a map. The project was funded by a $20,000 grant from Massachusetts Division of Local Services, as well as local appropriation. The system is schedule to go live soon. A link will be placed on the Town’s website for public access.

WATER/SEWER

The new Police station water and sewer service taps have been completed within the last few days.

We will be starting a new project in the coming weeks involving our meter system. Due to a manufacturer's programming error, a good number of our radio read meters have prematurely exhausted their internal batteries in 4-5 years instead of the expected 10 years leaving them unable to be read. The manufacturer has agreed to replace some 1700 meter heads that were manufactured with the wrong internal programming at no cost to the Town and with full warranties. In the near future we will be contacting customers with the defective meters schedule head replacement, which should take under 20 minutes. We anticipate the total project to take several months.

We are starting a joint project on Tuesday September the 4 to replace the aging and over stressed six inch water main on Walden St . The project will replace the current main with new eight inch ductile iron pipe to provide the area with better fire flow capabilities and even better water quality to the surrounding neighborhood. The project will be phase one of a three phase project extending both North on Hoxsey St to a loop on Main St. and South on Hoxsey st to an end point tie in on the Knolls Rd in subsequent years. We are proud to partner with the College and provide better upgraded utilities to ALL of our customer base.

Kirbie Nichols Cyr has passed her last exam and is now a fully licensed Water Systems Operator for the Town of Williamstown, to my knowledge she is the first female to reach this status in our history. We are proud of her successes and celebrate her achievements as a member of our staff here in the Water & Sewer Department and an employee of the Town of Williamstown!