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Bremen Selectman Chair Wendy Pieh and Department of Transportation Regional Engineer James Andrews discuss a work plan for Route 32. (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
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By Dominik Lobkowicz
No major reconstructive surgery is scheduled, but the Department of Transportation is planning to give Route 32 in Bremen a facelift through “light capital paving” and some
other helpful changes over the next few years.
The road is in rough condition, and driving conditions were markedly worse throughout this past winter. The Bremen Board of Selectmen has been working since at least last summer
to have the Department of Transportation resolve the issues.
In a meeting with town officials June 12, Mike Burns, the regional manager for DOT Region 2, and several other department representatives shared plans to perform ditching,
selective tree, brush, and ledge removal, and culvert replacement along the road beginning this summer and stretching over the next three to five years.
In regard to the tree cutting, the department will approach each property owner separately, according to James Andrews, the DOT’s regional engineer for Region 2.
“We’d like to get the sun to the road, because that’ll help,” he said.
The road will also get the “traditional treatment” of “light capital paving” including road shimming and a top coat in 2015, Burns said.
Tom Kostenbader, the town’s project manager, was not thrilled with the proposal.
“Let’s face it. The road’s shot. You know it, we all know it,” said Kostenbader. “It’s shot, and it needs more than light paving. To me, that’s throwing money away.”
Kostenbader said light paving is all that has been done on Route 32 in Bremen since he moved to town 27 years ago.
Burns acknowledged light capital paving is not a fix for the road’s problems, but said ditching and tree-cutting should help with drainage and melting of snow and ice.
“We can’t rebuild everything,” said Burns. “Honestly, the lower priority roads are not in a schedule at all for reconstruction.”
The state Legislature funds 600 miles of light capital paving per year and only 500 tons of asphalt is allotted per mile, Andrews said, which works out to a layer roughly 5/8
of an inch thick.
“We admit that they’re our roads,” said Andrews, “but we’re also here to tell you the truth, that we don’t have the money to do your roads.”
“Light capital paving is $45,000 a mile. Reconstruction, on average, is $2 million a mile,” he said.
Andrews suggested the department’s Municipal Partnership Initiative as an avenue for the town, which would split up to $1 million in costs of a project between the state and the
town.
In discussions, Kostenbader restated the town’s position that Route 32 south of Route 1 should be reclassified from a Priority 4 road to a Priority 3, but DOT officials
demurred.
The daily traffic count for the southern section of Route 32 is only 800 cars per day, but the section between Route 1 and Route 17 is closer to 2,700 cars per day, which is why
the classification is different, according to Andrews.
Town officials pointed out concerns over emergency medical response times, the effect road conditions have had on local businesses, and the fact that Route 32 in Bremen is an
evacuation route, but Burns said a change in classification would not affect the work planned to be done on the road.
“We think you’re in line as far as priority, and I believe I told you last time I was here, if we move you to a [Priority] 3, I don’t see anything happening to the road any
differently. There’s no money. You’re going to get the same treatments,” Burns said.
“The only Priority 3 road we have on a peninsula is Boothbay Harbor” in this region, he said. “Everybody else is a 4.”
Pieh said she was clear on the department’s position, but the town will still work on getting the road’s priority changed.
“We understand where you’re coming from and what your limits are,” she said.
