Not To Worry, They'll Smooth Out

[Henry]

Was talking with our Fairfax Road Foreman, Don Pigeon last night and mentioned how bad the roads got this year.  He tells me that the frost did a worst job than usual as the frost kept driving in the ground all winter.

He tells me that those sluice's you see dropped in the black top will come back up and the roads will smooth out.  I went out to St. Albans the other night and I believe that Route 104 has smoothed out quite a bit compared to a few weeks ago.

Patience my friends, patience.

[Loctavious]

Rte 128 has gotten significantly better in that regard.  There's usually 1 massive sink frost heave about 2.3 miles outside of westford heading to Essex.  This year there were 3 more on the straight away where that Old Trailer PArk use to be - just before you get to essex.  They were pretty intense - so much so i altered my route home for the past 2 weeks.

[Judi]

It is really sad when the taxpayers spend so much to black top a road then to have it all torn up in only one year. I think the prep work is not good enough under neath the thin layer of black top or the formula they have is not what it should be.  River road has only been paved for a couple of years and it is getter worse than ever, you have to weave back and forth to avoid the torn up sections.  What recourse do we have when the paving isn't holding up and our budget doesn't allow us to fix the problem?

[Henry]

I heard someplace, although don't know that it is true, that where the blacktop is mixed, there is not a State Quality Control Inspector there every day and on days there isn't one, the quality may not be there.  Now this may not be a true statement, but if so, perhaps a State Quality Control Inspector should be there every day to insure the quality of the blacktop mixed used on our roads.

[Judi]

I use to work with a woman who's husband was a quality inspector of the formula for black tops and if it wasn't done correctly it didn't leave the plant.  Those were the good old days when you got your money's worth but like everything else these days the quality is lacking but the price keeps going up.