WESTFIELD – The City Council’s Legislative & Ordinance Committee will begin to review and update the city ordinance regulation how city streets are patched with asphalt following excavation.
The issue was raised by Ward 2 City Councilor James E. Brown at the council’s Dec. 15, 2011 session. Brown raised the issue because of the extensive excavation of roads between Main and East Silver streets when water and gas utilities were upgraded as part of the Main Street reconstruction, work that required trenching.
Brown sponsored a motion at that session to establish an ordinance to regulate how the pavement of city streets is cut and repaired, by either city departments or private contractors. Currently, road cuts are repaired with a patch the same size as the pavement cut. The proposed ordinance would require the department or contractor making the cut to obtain a city permit and to install curb-to-curb paving at least 10 feet beyond the edges of the pavement cut.
At Large Councilor John J. Beltrandi III commended the intent of Brown’s proposal, but said that the problem of sinking patches is usually caused by improper back filling of the excavation.
“Compaction is the issue, not the patch,” Beltrandi said. “You can pave 20 feet around the cut, but if it’s not compacted properly, you’ll still end up with a hole in the middle of that pavement. What needs to be addressed is the compaction issue. Ninety percent of road patch failure is due to improper compaction.”
Then At-large Councilor Gerald Tracy said that there is already an ordinance on the books and suggested the council request the Law Department to research the ordinance and provide it to Brown, the L&O chairman.
At-Large Councilor David A. Flaherty suggested that a performance bond be added to the permit process.
Beltrandi, a contractor, said that many area communities have a performance and inspection requirement as part of the permit.
“Most communities have a permit process which establishes guidelines and inspection requirements that put the contractor on the hook for between 30 and 60 days,” he said. “I just did a project in Agawam that required cut across the entire road. Compaction is done in 12-inch lifts to prevent settling and each step in the back fill process is inspected by the city before you can proceed.”
Brown said that the Law Department did find the existing road patch ordinance.
“There is in fact an ordinance on the books,” Brown said Friday. “We’re going to look at it because it needs to be tightened up and so we have a stronger enforcement capability.”
“So the original motion did what I had intended, it initiated discussion by the council members,” Brown said. “The Westfield Gas & Electric Department and Jim Mulvenna (the Public Works department superintendent) have both called me to discuss the ordinance.”
“Jim has a level frustration because he gets all of the complaints for problems he has little control over, so he’s happy the issue came to light,” Brown said. “There needs to be enforcement and that will be through the DPW.”
Brown said that the compaction issues raised by Beltrandi, also a member of the L&O, are part of the existing ordinance, but that the compaction process needs to be more clearly defined, with inspection as it is performed.
“It won’t be a finished product Monday, something that we can bring out at the next council meeting,” Brown said. “But we can initiate discussion and begin to refine the ordinance so it addresses our concerns.”
Dan Moriarty can be reached at [email protected]
