Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
Communities across the state are quickly completing work using a $30 million state program created to help cities and towns repair potholes and other winter damage to local roadways.
The Winter Recovery Assistance Program is being put to work patching potholes, paving cracks, resurfacing road defects, and replacing damaged signs, guardrails, storm drains and line striping.
Cities and towns must complete the work by June 30 and submit reimbursement requests to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation by July 31 of this year. MassDOT will reimburse cities and towns as invoices are received.
Because of the deadline, many communities have prioritized these projects.
“We want to get the best bang for our buck,” Brockton Public Works Commissioner Larry Rowley told the Brockton Enterprise. “We try to go where the worst streets are.”
The streets will not be paved in their entirety, however. Rowley said the department will focus on sections of roads that are particularly bad, where they will grind down the pavement and put down a fresh coat of asphalt to smooth out the street.
East Bridgewater Public Works Director John Haines also told the Enterprise, “Our intentions here are to use that [funding] for expanding our crack-sealing program to address some of the significant cracking and damage to the roadways.”
The town will also use a portion of the money to replace street signs and guardrails that were damaged by snow removal efforts.
The Highway and Vehicle Maintenance Department in West Bridgewater is pouring tons of asphalt each week in an effort to repair potholes that have sprouted up throughout the town, according to superintendent Leonard Graf.
“The average is that they are doing about five tons three days a week,” he said.
Chicopee Mayor Richard Kos told the Springfield Republican that the state program “is a major help and will make a difference.”
Plymouth Public Works Director Jonathan Beder told the Old Colony Memorial, “This is a great thing for Plymouth considering the winter we’ve had, and because generally we don’t have the ability to use Chapter 90 funds for potholes.”
Stoneham Public Works Director Robert Grover told the Stoneham Sun that his department will “be spending most of the spring repairing all the damage” from a record-setting winter.
The Winter Recovery Assistance Program, announced in mid-March, uses money from the existing fiscal 2015 transportation bond authorization, according to the Baker administration. While the pothole account is separate from the Chapter 90 local road and bridge program, it is distributed to cities and towns based on the Chapter 90 formula.