AMHERST — Amherst’s Department of Public Works is putting forward a plan to resurface 19 roads totaling 7.3 miles as part of $4.84 million in projects this year.
A 7,700-foot portion of Middle Street, 5,400 feet of Flat Hills Road and 4,850 feet of Market Hill Road are the longest stretches of town roads that are expected to be done sometime in 2026.
With continued evidence of deterioration in the condition of Amherst roads, the town will be seeking a contractor to use a combination of state Chapter 90 road money and dedicated town money.
Jason Skeels, the town engineer, on April 2 outlined to the Town Services and Outreach Committee the extent of work that would deal with a portion of the $47.7 million backlog on the town’s 104 miles of public ways.
While that backlog is smaller than the $49 million backlog from 2021, the last time the roads were evaluated by a company that specializes in determining the condition of roads, Skeels attributes this reduction mostly to the town exploring cheaper alternatives for resurfacing, and not actually doing any real catch-up. The $5 million or so should allow the town to maintain the current road conditions.
The pavement condition index, or PCI, shows that the average road rates at a 57, meaning it is in fair condition, and having dropped eight points over the four years. That PCI is well short of the 70 needed for the average road to be in good condition and an 85 score to be in excellent condition.
The proposal Skeels put together is based on a pavement management plan from Citylogix in Wakefield, which uses a data collection vehicle with cameras and then deploys a deterioration model to score the roads based on the bumps, deformations, potholes, longitudinal, transverse and alligator cracks and other problems observed.
The decisons on the paving plan are made based on defining each street as a local, arterial and collector road, depending on the volume of traffic, and then determining what should be done, such as reclamation and repaving, mill and overlay, crack seal or defer maintenance. The DPW creates the mix of treatments that fit a particular road, Skeels said, including a lot of overlays and a few mills, a few full-depth reclamations and a few shims and overlays.
Skeels said the plan is made outside of popular opinion, with a focus on main roads first, because high-volume roads generate more complaints and do more damage to vehicles. But lower volume streets are being added to the plan.
“We’ve gotten so far behind on side streets that we’re trying to push both those rocks up the hill at the same time,” Skeels said.
“Our side streets are starting to suffer from lack of attention, lack of money,” he added.
The other roads where more than 1,500 feet will be resurfaced are 3,450 feet of Station Road from Wildflower Drive to the bridge crossing at 50 Station Road, 2,200 feet of Blackberry Lane from Grantwood Drive to its end, 2,130 feet of Old Farm Road from Belchertown Road to its end, 1,720 feet of Gatehouse Road from Belchertown Road to Stony Hill Road and 1,600 feet of Main Street from South East Street to Pelham Road.
A handful of roads are also being resurfaced because there have been water main replacements, Skeels said. Those include Canton Avenue and Grove Street.
In addition, some road work remains from Palmer Paving that wasn’t completed last year, when its crews made sure that the main intersection of Amity, Main and North and South Pleasant streets was finished. That leftover work includes a shim and overlay for 1,380 feet of Lincoln Avenue from Northampton Road to Amity Street and full-depth reconstruction of 1,826 feet of University Drive from Amity Street to the CVS Pharmacy, though this project will only be complete when the roundabout at Amity Street and University Drive is done.
Sidewalks are also included in the scope of some work.
District 3 Councilor George Ryan, who chairs the Town Services and Outreach Committee, said he appreciated Skeels providing a sense of need and costs, though he observed that while more money could be dedicated to roads, the whims of the council and who is serving on it change from year to year. He pointed out that more money had been sought by Town Manager Paul Bockelman from free cash, but this instead went to repairing the roof at the Amherst Regional Middle School.
District 4 Councilor Jennifer Taub asked about the need for replacing the sewer infrastructure on High Street before the road can be repaved, observing it is a major commuter way from Main Street to the middle school.
“The road is in really bad condition,” Taub said. “Realistically, when could the infrastructure be repaired and replaced so the road can be repaved.”
Skeels said he would be concerned that a paver and roller would cause the sewer line below to collapse.
“It’s hard to prioritize the many, many infrastructure woes,” Skeels said. “We’re almost at a triage level of tackling the ones that are at risk of imminent failure, and the ones that can keep going.”
DPW Superintendent Guilord Mooring said a priority for sewer work is the sewer siphon on Seelye Street, because there are back ups there that cause sewer overflow into the Fearing Brook. But Mooring said some resurfacing might be able to be done on High Street, similar to Summer Street in North Amherst.
“We’ll take a look at it and see if we can move it up,” Mooring said.
Bockelman said the DPW is looking at ways to extend dollars and traffic calming and create a coherent plan for the short term and the next five years.
Taub said Amherst has gotten used to what she described as a “high level” of dysfunction in roads, buildings and infrastructure and officials need to make it clear to both the University of Massachusetts and Amherst College these problems when discussing strategic partnership arrangements and possible financial contributions.
“Will that be part of the conversation? We’re at a point where we need some critical support,” Taub said.
