County Furloughs Delay Local Road Work

 

Roughed up roads to remain, briefly

A scheduled temporary work stoppage will leave some rough patches of road in the village as workers from Washington County get a week off that is part of a planned move to cut costs at the county level.


Granville Department of Public Works Superintendent Dan Williams said the crews who worked to “mill” up parts of Pine and North streets as well as part of Morrison Avenue will not be on the job this week to replace the top layer of pavement.
Due to other commitments, Williams said, the county workers might not return to the village until the week of Sept. 6.
County DPW officials said they hoped to get back to finish all of the work that needs to happen within the village before Labor Day and the opening of school across the region on Sept. 8.
Road surfaces from the intersection of Main and North streets through the intersection with Pine Street and up Pine Street to the top of the hill were ground up and moved into waiting trucks starting Aug. 18.
Williams said the material would be used by the village for patches. New pavement will cover all of the milled surfaces, not the recycled material.
Also taken up was the top layer on Morrison Avenue from Veterans Park to Factory Street and a section of road that runs in front of the Granville Engine and Hose Co. No. 1 firehouse.
Using a grinder that strips off the top layer of pavement, county crews could recycle the material and put it back down on the same stretch of road as pavement. Williams said that was not the plan this time around, although the material would likely be reused in some way by both organizations.
The recycling process was used on Church Street from the Route 22 intersection to Potter Avenue in 2008.
Williams said one of the reasons for the milling was to keep pavement levels low between the curbs for storm water routing. Milling was not needed where there are no curbs, he said.
The county is expected to pave all the way to the bridge in Middle Granville on county Route 24, officials said.
Washington County Administrator Kevin Hayes said last Friday the work stoppage will save the county approximately $9,000 each day as the county department of public works goes silent for five work days between Monday, Aug. 23, and Friday, Aug. 27.
Mayor Jay Niles said Williams realized he could save what is called a “mobilization charge” by the county by conducting grinder and paving work simultaneously with the county crew that was already scheduled to work on county roads within the village.
Niles said anticipating the county work schedule helped save the village about $600. “Now when they pave we’ll pave; I’d call that a good cooperative effort; plus it saves the village money,” Niles said.
In a busy week for the roads of the village, Niles said he also helped get some marking done at the notorious West Main and Quaker streets intersection almost by accident.
Niles said he stopped to see if a state crew working in the village had been tasked with placing the letters to a “yield” sign on the pavement on West Main Street.
He found they knew nothing about that job.
However, Niles said he had already had a conversation with a local state engineer who confirmed the word decal should be added to the street.
After making a few phone calls, Niles said, the crew confirmed the yield had been added to its workload of stop lines and crosswalks.
“It wasn’t there until I stopped by – never hurts to ask,” Niles said.