RANDAL BROWN
SOUTHWICK – The results of a study of Southwick’s roads will soon be complete.
Department of Public Works Director Randal Brown said Beta Group has finished its assessment of the town roadways and is compiling the data to prioritize projects.
Beta Group, based out of eastern Mass., has had crews in Southwick looking closely at the roads.
“They are looking for any deficiencies in the roadway such as cracking and other things,” said Brown. “They measured road width and noted whether or not they were striped, and gave each road a rating of 0 to 100, with 100 being a brand-new road.”
Beta Groups crews just finished the field work last week.
“Now they are compiling data and will present their report,” said Brown. “The report will be a guide.”
Brown said prioritizing the roads is based on roads in the most need of repairs, as well as which roads are most heavily traveled.
“I am hoping to meet with the consultants next week to go over a draft report,” said Brown.
The town must go to bid for the work and Brown said there are funds in the budget to begin paving by fall.
“We get funding from Chapter 90 money from the state in the range of about $360,000, plus the town also allocates funds,” he said. “My goal is to do some improvements every year – this has to become a yearly program in order to maintain our roads.”
In March, the Board of Selectmen unanimously approved contracting with Beta Group for a $16,700 pavement program. Brown said he solicited quotes from three companies for pavement programs. Only two returned bids.
The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission proposal was $9,400 and Beta Group was $16,700, said Brown.
“Despite the higher cost, I feel the Beta Group program is superior,” he told the board earlier this spring. “The town would own it and we could use it not only for one year but in the future.”
The appeal of the Beta Group program is that once the town buys it, it can be updated by town employees.
“Once they are done with this project they will train us to use the software they developed and we will be able to update it ourselves,” Brown said. “The PVPC program, while only $9,400, was not something we would own and we would have to go back to them to update it every year.”
The selectmen agreed that the higher cost program would actually save money over time.
