The road crews are doing a great job overall, given the weather we’ve been having, but now that the Route 30 reclamation project is about to the halfway point or so, I have some feedback from the point of view of a road user.
1. Stickney Brook was the wrong “break point”
They’ve paved a base coat all the way to the Stickney Brook bridge. It would have been better for RT 30 users to have Rt 30 paved with a base coat to the Dummerston covered bridge, another mile down the road.
The Dummerston bridge is the decision point for drivers. Do I continue down bumpy RT 30 or take the long way by using East-West Rd? If it had a base coat to the bridge, fewer might choose to drive the extra miles over to Putney Rd.
Stickney Brook is not that decision point.
2. Returning Rt 30 to dirt and gravel north of the Dummerston covered bridge was premature
Those venturing north of the Dummerston covered bridge have had to deal with dirt and gravel for weeks now. Not a problem, we’re all in this together, and so on, BUT based on the pace of things, there won’t be a base coat applied (or even the “spray on” road surface) for a while.
Seems like this could have been delayed slightly and we all could have been driving on grooved pavement a bit longer than they allowed. I get the sense that this project is sharing resources with some other project somewhere else in New England, and that accounts for some of these odd scheduling decisions (that favor the companies but not the drivers)
3. Given the above, it’s a bit annoying to see the fine-tuning and additional smooth coats being applied at the Brattleboro end of things
The dirt and gravel portions of Rt 30 are really bumpy. Drivers and passengers without big vehicles get bounced around. I get headaches and my vision blurs depending on how bumpy it is any given day.
Get down to the Brattleboro end and things look great. Nice thick, multi-steam-rolled asphalt layers with nice painting of stripes and so on. It seems as if that end will be completely finished before the dirt portion north get started.
If I were in charge, I would have asked for a base coat the entire length before adding additional layers. Of course, I am not a road engineer, nor do I play one on TV. Maybe there is some special reason that one end must be super nice while one end can give headaches.
4. One cool thing for kids interested in construction…
…it’s not just men driving the big vehicles out there. I’ve seen at least one woman operating some of the biggest machinery.
5. The road seems wider in the almost-finished sections
It looks like the breakdown lanes are bit wider now. Better accommodation for bike riders and people with flats?
….
That’s it for me. I’m sure you might have some thoughts as well. Add them in the comments.
I can’t wait for the improvements to be done, especially drainage
View from the north so to speak
It is more than a bit annoying that they stopped putting the shim layer down and started additional paving at the south end of the project. Those of us who live north of the project and anyone who has to commute are having to put up with the gravel much longer that one would think is actually necessary. I have seen no explanation of why they decided to stop were they did.
This is especially true based on this little bit of info from VT AOT that was posted at the beginning of the month:
“To maintain the integrity of the subbase of the roadway, the entire width, and often the entire length of the roadway must be done at the same time. Reclaiming only one half of the roadway at a time can compromise the subbase at the longitudinal joint. Segmenting the roadway is possible, but can pose logistical issues, oftentimes leading to longer project durations and higher costs. Various operations take longer than others to complete and are difficult to stagger.”
I am not an engineer either but, I do suspect that they stopped at Stickney Brook because there was a bridge there which provided a natural stopping point.
That does not make me any less annoyed and, I suspect, there are a lot of folks out there who are probably even more annoyed than I am. (I kept my language clean, the term “annoyed” hardly covers how I feel).
Take the long way home
There is always the the long way around… Dover-Wilmington-Marlboro-Brattleboro…. I’ve done it to avoid RT 30 a couple times now. : )
RT 9 is a currently a freshly-paved treat for drivers. Much nicer at the moment, with fresh paving.
Delay
I will guess the reason for the delay in putting pavement down on the gravel section has to do with the Subcontractor, Gorham Bros. They are much involved in the cold mix first layer of paving. Probably the pug mill and for sure the calcium chloride. Saw their trucks on the job earlier. Most likely they are committed elsewhere and with all the rain everyone is behind any schedule they may have planned.
Getting better
Much better driving now up to about the Rock River. More “spray on paving” in parts, new layers of graded dirt are being put in place. Paving starting to move past Stickney Brook…. : )