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GORDON DANIELS

Ruts and holes along this stretch of Reservoir Road in the Leeds section of Northampton are emblematic of long-delayed repairs. The city has a $16 million backlog of pavement projects and might tackle only one major repair this summer.

NORTHAMPTON - Cracks are becoming crevasses. Potholes are merging with other potholes. Downtown streets are unraveling and so are roads in far-flung reaches of Leeds.

A $12 million backlog in road work that grew to $14.5 million last year has now swelled to more than $16 million. In addition, little relief is in sight even as federal stimulus dollars for transportation infrastructure improvements flow into the state.

The result: Northampton's roads are in an accelerating state of decline.

"Unless we get a substantial infusion of funds, our infrastructure is going to continue to deteriorate," said Ned Huntley, director of the Department of Public Works. "We should be spending $1.5 million to $2 million (on roads) every year, and we're not."

A Gazette review of Northampton's road paving during the past 10 years finds that while the state's Chapter 90 highway contributions to the city have increased, the number of miles of roads paved has declined, even when taking into account state-run road jobs like the reconstruction of Route 66.

In 2000, for example, the city paved more than 6 miles of the approximately 130 miles of road it manages. The paving that year, contracted out to a private company, occurred on 17 different streets at a time when the city's state Chapter 90 highway money was only a third of what it is today.

Last year, the city hired an outside contractor to pave less than a mile of road on four streets after receiving $782,351 in state highway funds. The city's annual paving contract totaled $393,906; the remainder of the Chapter 90 highway money was either rolled over to this year or put toward other eligible uses.

This year, the DPW anticipates paving only a half to three-quarters of a mile of road. North Street and West Farms Road in Florence are the front-runners, but only one of those roads is likely to get paved, according to the DPW.

North Street, which runs from King to Bates streets downtown, hasn't been paved since 1986, records show.

"Every street is in various states of disrepair," Huntley said. "This is the infrastructure everybody sees."

Road work underfunded

City officials say the state of the city's roads is a reflection of ongoing local and state budget crises, rising costs and fierce competition for funds.

Over the past several years, Huntley has requested capital funding from the city to help catch up with paving and repairing the city's roads. He received $50,000 a few years ago, but nothing more.

Last year, he requested $2 million annually over the next five years from the city's Capital Improvements Committee for road improvements, but to no avail. In his view, the city has not provided enough funding to run an effective pavement-management program, including the purchase of equipment.

"The money we are putting in is wholly inadequate," he said.

Mayor Clare Higgins said the state of the city's roads is "a concern" and noted capital improvement money has been moving to other city services over the years.

"I will say that (road paving) has been crowded out by things like policing, firefighting and schools, and that's a problem," Higgins said.

Earlier this year, the DPW requested $15 million in federal stimulus dollars for roadway improvements, but local officials are not expecting to receive any money. The state anticipates spending $437.9 million on roads and bridges through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but those projects are not expected to fix roads like Chesterfield and Reservoir roads, which are falling apart, or Hinckley Street, Drury Lane or Island Road, which are riddled with potholes.

"We really have depended on Chapter 90 (highway money); that's the bottom line," Higgins said. "There's a lot of pressure on that account."

She said the city is not alone when it comes to not being able to maintain its roads, though some cities and towns have been proactive when it comes to appropriating local dollars for road improvements, according to Gordon Daring, a senior project manager with Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, a consulting firm that surveys the conditions of roads across the Northeast, including Northampton.

"Some have adopted a pavement management program more than others," Daring said. "In those communities, the roads have gotten better."

"I know that the city of Northampton has not been able to fund all of the work that our analysis would say is needed," he added.

Pressure-packed account

The state's Chapter 90 highway money is primarily designed to help cities and towns improve and repair transportation infrastructure. The money - $150 million this year - is distributed through a formula that takes into account a city's population, employment and miles of road.

But the funds can be put toward a variety of road-related uses, from capital equipment and traffic signals to payroll, landscaping and engineering.

In Northampton, a sizable portion of Chapter 90 highway funds have been used to buy new equipment in recent years, including a street sweeper and 10-wheeler truck that cost a combined $305,000.

State highway money has been used to pay for engineering design and legal services, land takings and curb work, as well as unanticipated expenses.

Last year, the Department of Public Works was forced to tap $108,000 from the account to repair a slope along Route 66 that the state Highway Department reconstructed only a few years earlier.

A recent public forum on the coming roundabout at Look Memorial Park cost about $2,800 for consultants just to show up and discuss the project - money that otherwise could be used to repair the city's roads. The DPW has paid $150,000 for engineering design services related to the roundabout, including about $40,000 in change orders.

Compounding the competition for the city's Chapter 90 Highway funds in recent years is the rising cost of asphalt. Ten years ago, the city was paying in the low $30-range per ton for asphalt, but the price has doubled in the past few years. The city paid $64 per ton for asphalt last year.

"Asphalt prices have gone through the roof," Huntley said.

Can-do paving

Lacking money to properly maintain roads, the Department of Public Works this year will experiment with a $4,000 piece of newly manufactured equipment: The paving drag box is an 8-foot-wide iron box that is loaded with asphalt and pushed by a truck to apply a thin coat of pavement to roads.

Huntley said he got the idea of using the drag box from Westhampton's Highway Department, where a similar device is used. Drag boxes have reportedly been used by highway crews in the Hilltowns as well.

Ed Button, the DPW streets superintendent, described the new box as "kind of old school." Nevertheless, he believes it will help delay some of the road deterioration that's occurring in the city.

Huntley said the DPW has not yet identified which roads it will skim coat this year or how the department will pay for it. A crew will soon try out the box in a pothole-ridden section of its highway yard off Locust Street.

In addition to skimcoating and patching potholes, the DPW plans this summer to hire outside contractors to pave and seal cracks in roads. The department has dedicated $100,000 for crack sealing as it tries to put a dent in a $500,000 backlog for that work, for which it does not have the labor.

Today, the Department of Public Works does not have a capital improvement plan in place for equipment. Meantime, the city, now in an acute budget crisis, is unable to increase the percentage of money it uses for capital improvements - never mind use it for roads.

"There's no doubt we need to do more," Higgins said. "The question is, where do we get the money to do it?"

Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.