Some Spencerport village roads
are diagnosed 'red' in maintenance plan

Spencerport village officials recently completed a comprehensive analysis of the 12.3 miles of pavement and streets, reviewing the condition of every mile of pavement in the village, proposed maintenance and upgrade needs and projected costs over the next 30 years to maintain and improve the streets for the future.

The first part of the program will begin in the summer of 2004 at an estimated cost of approximately $540,000. This work will be performed by a combination of village highway crews and independent contractors. It will be paid for through money collected in tax receipts, reserve funds, and from the defunct water fund. Village officials plan to present an overview of the projects at a public information meeting this fall.

The software program used by the village to perform this analysis is called PAVER. It was developed by the Army Corps of Engineers for use in determining the conditions of landing strips in airports. PAVER has determined the condition of every road in the village and what actions need to be taken. Simple coding of red, green and yellow define each road's conditions: red is critical - the road needs immediate work that can not be postponed; yellow indicates middle of status, the road could use work, needs work but can be put on hold for a time; green means the roads are in good condition right now.

In the past, streets were maintained and resurfaced basically on the opinion of village administers usually at the recommendation of the highway department. It was more of an "eyeball" approach than an analytical approach. "Fifteen years is a magic number when you're dealing with road surfaces," Village Administrator Al Scheg said. "Most of the roads in the village are well over 50 years old and are definitely showing the wear. Roads are made to last for about 25 years but begin to really show the wear after 15 (years)."

Large areas of the village such as the Village Walk subdivision were built in the late 60s, early 70s. This summer the first phase of the plan is to address two of the critical or "red" roads, Village Walk and Brittain Circle. In addition to these two roads, there will also be work performed on a smaller scale on Laurelcrest Drive, Clark Street, the West Avenue extension, and Coventry Drive. These streets will have milling and paving performed while 17 additional streets and parking lots will have minor surface repairs done.

"It all really comes to cost. It costs approximately $3.15 per square foot to completely replace a critical condition road versus 15 cents a square foot to maintain it," Scheg said.

An aggressive plan has been formulated to keep the roads maintained and in good shape. The cycle for new road maintenance, for example, would be: year three crack sealed, year seven seal coated, year 11 crack sealed again, year 15 second seal coat, in year 18 crack sealed, year 21 initial mill and resurface, and in year 24 begin again. Eventually all the roads in the village will be on this schedule, saving the village over 50 percent in road improvement costs, according to officials. Not only will it save money but it's a safety concern as well. "Better roads are safer roads," Scheg said.

Anyone with questions on this project can contact the Spencerport Village offices at 352-4771.