Photo: It’s so bad, it’s a winner! (Thanks, Google)
For homeowners on 14 roads in Belmont: Congratulations, you’ve won the bad street lottery.
According to the town’s Office of Community Development, the thoroughfares you live on are deemed so in disrepair – more than half of the roads have a pavement condition index (PCI) rating in the 30s, considered a “poor” grade where travel is “uncomfortable with frequent bumps or depressions” – that it made the cut to undergo a complete reconstruction in fiscal 2018 which begins July 1.
The “winners” are:
- Williston Road from Trapelo to Horne (with a PCI rating of 34)
- Alma Avenue from Bartlett to Belmont
- Louise Road from Edgemore to Becket
- Newton Street from Belmont to Fairview
- Ridge Road from Belmont to White
- Carleton Road from Washington to Chester
- Juniper Road from Somerset to Fletcher
- Branchaud Road from Carleton to Washington
- Creeley Road from Slate to Hammond
- Harriet Avenue from Bartlett to Belmont
- Benton Road from Payson to Oakley
- Lawndale Street from Oakley to Payson Road
- Townsend Road from Payson (North) to Payson (South)
- Payson Road from Oakley to Belmont
The list is subject to change based on the availability of utility work by National Grid to be completed on the roads in 2017. All the work in fiscal ’18 follows the replacement of nearly 100-year-old water mains by the Department of Public Work’s Water Division.
The FY 2018 town budget REDUCED funding for roads. Belmont always funds schools, tennis courts and pool over our roads, Next up are library, police station, and community path…over road. I’ve been in roads in Sri Lanka and rural ME and VT that are all better than Belmont’s roads. WAZE actually has pothole warnings for Belmont. I’ve never seen it show up anywhere else.
The town budget for FY 18 REDUCED spending on roads. School or roads? Tennis courts or roads? Police station or roads? Community path or roads? Library or roads? At some point, we need to face the reality of our crumbing roads. I’ve driven in rural Maine and Vermont and developing countries that have better roads than Belmont. No exaggeration.
How did Marion Rd fall off the list? What other streets weren’t completed on prior lists????
So all the town has budget for is to repair 2 1/2 – 3 miles of road a year? That’s only 25 years or so to repair all 77+ miles of road. No wonder everything is crumbling. At least the local auto repair shops will stay in business by fixing all the broken vehicle suspensions.
We had our street Strarns rd replaced in 1943 ,no joke