BANGOR, Maine — The same economic woes that forced Bangor city officials to put off needed paving work for years has provided them an opportunity to smooth out many rough spots over the next 18 months.
Although budgetary concerns haven’t waned this year, Bangor city councilors and city department heads put their heads together and found a way to make ongoing adverse economic conditions work for them.
The result is a $2.5 million road and sidewalk project that will begin late this summer, continue through 2013, and result in the repaving of 11.8 miles of Bangor roads.
“Back in March, the council sat down with Dana Wardwell [the public works director] and Art Morgan [the city’s civil engineer] and talked about where we are in our paving,” said City Manager Cathy Conlow.
Where they were was way behind schedule.
“Ideally, road pavement will last about 10 years before it needs some maintenance,” said Morgan. “Through a course of unfortunate circumstances which drove the price of paving up over the years, we began to reduce the amount of road maintenance we were doing each year. So instead of repairing a road every 10 years, we were doing it every 20.”
At the same time, Morgan added, the federal law regulating heavy truck travel over Interstate highways changed, forcing more big rigs to use county and city roads, further breaking them down.
“We rely heavily on our engineering and public works department and they went through several road evaluations and took into account their usage and driver volume,” said Conlow. “We had gotten into a mode of deferring projects over the years, but realizing this is something people really wanted, [councilors] committed to looking more long term.”
The project, which will begin with preparation work this fall, involves paving all or parts of 30 different roads, streets, avenues, lanes, courts, and sidewalks in Bangor. Some of the main streets in that mix include Buck, Essex, Fifteenth, Ohio and French streets; Burleigh, Griffin and Sylvan roads; and Webster, Husson and Stillwater avenues.
“The interest rate we’re paying on bonded money gives us a real opportunity to make up for lost time,” said Morgan. “As far as evaluating which roads to pave, we always maintain a list of the roads that need attention. These are the ones in most need and they’re also — for the most part — very heavily traveled.”
Bangor Finance Director Debbie Cyr said it’s the first major repaving project by Bangor since the early 1990s. That was done via a state jobs bond program.
“As part of the annual budget process, the council viewed this as a significant opportunity to make a major investment in our road system due to historically low interest rates right now,” said Cyr, who added that the term for the loan would likely be 15 years at around 2.5 percent.
Morgan said while some of the work may start this year, most of it will be done next year.
What about Main Ave. from Griffin to Westland. BPW has ruined that road and refuse to repair it. It is very heavily traveled. It is by far one of the worst roads in Bangor but because it is being destroyed by BPW trucks, it will never be repaired.
Nobody gives an …. about Maine ave….and the army trucks do way more damage than BPW….don’t like it? Use Union….that is the heavily traveled road that they are talking about!
WOW!! Anti military, huh?
I thought the Job Creating Elite built our roads and bridges. This sounds like socialism!
Now that we are going to have all these infrastructure improvements, we will have a boom in new businesses. After all the president said so you just don’t build a business on your own.
Want to make those dollars go farther? – put the work out to bid.
Everything goes to bid lame wishes it didn’t
Yup, nothnig like putting a little bit of profit and a middle man in there to inmprove the economics of the situation. Right.
Why bother with the bids. Lane Construction will get it anyway. Notice most of the improvements are in the more affluent parts of town.
Well come on what do you want a fresh pave job on streets like 3rd, Dirigo and Bald Mountain? Please … what for?
You obviously don’t use it much or you would know they have had that all torn up for a month and are totally re doing it including one of those stupid rotaries on the airport inter section
Please tell me I’m reading this article wrong. The City is borrowing money on a 15 year note that will buy paving work that last 10 years?
Hey some like west land get paved every other year meanwhile outta Ohio has been over 20
LOL!! like paying for a car after you trade it in and now are making 2 payments for only one car.
They can borrow any amount, any time, for anything! That’s why we elected them.
The serve the people not their pockets.
They should have saved enough money in the police budget to pave the roads. Well here goes our taxes again up,up and away. That a song.
Hey Bangor is growing! The debts are anyways……
The city just raised our Real Estate taxes 45 cents per thousand, Has the best fleet of vehicles in the State and keeps looking for ways to continue spending. This is in addition to Water and Sewer increases that have been announced and a new surface water run off tax that is being labeled a Fee. People are not going to be able to afford to live in Bangor much longer.
Water did not go up this year. Sewer has gone up the last 2. Compare Bangor Water rates with Hampden and Brewer- it’s about 1/3 of those two communities. Stormwater is a whole new long discussion- last winters sand is still on my road. The road never got swept this year- at least that part that hasn’t been flushed into the sewer system so they can’t be too worried about stormwater
They sweep my road 4 times already this year. I guess it’s where you live and who you are.
The center of the new round about near the airport is way to high and you cannot see traffic coming from the other side. This will cause accidents. If you can’t see if a car is in the circle how will you be able to proceed with caution
No kidding wait until they start going around it back wards like they do at the other one this will be even worse head on blind wrecks
how short are you? I have no problem at that roundabout.
The one by the GE plant is fine.. Time to fix the other one before it’s finished
The view must be clear down each of those streets from way up there.
Pave, try painting the stripes on the roads
This council has bonded more then all previous councils in the history of Bangor put together. Lead by the aclaimed fiscal responsible Mayor Weston.
He’s not the mayor and does not carry any more weight in matters than his colleagues on the council carry.
Lets not pave our roads, lets not do our job, instead, lets build an arena. Idiots!!
Oooh sarcasm and name calling … awesome!!!!
What a farce, I saw the Maine guys taring Bucksport road this week, the tar is so thin, I swear, they could use a big paintbrush, that job ought to get us through the winter maybe, before the grass grows back.
I don’t think that is the final coat…
Might be a shim coat then the binder then the finish coat I doubt its just a skinny coat although they do that sometimes can’t imagine it on that road
Its a necessary evil… hate construction, love the pothole free road afterwards.
Nothing wrong with Buck street except where they just dug it up by the Cross insurance center.
Hammond street last year cost 1 millon for a mile, they all ready dug it up in a bunch of places this summer.
I guess our Mayor will have a pothole free ride home.
3 posts now referring to the mayor where is what his mouth telling us they ain’t no mayor
See above :-)
Like the headline says, “long overdue.” City (and county, and state, and nation) have been kicking infrastructure down the calendar for years. Costs less, the earlier you do it . . .
The tourist have no clue where they are going because the lines at intercetions aren’t painted. also directional arrows hanging above the streets on cables at the lights would help.
I live on 15th Street, and to be honest, I would much prefer that it not be paved (it does not need to be done now, it’s not that bad). We have been trying to get natural gas on our street and having the road paved will delay our project for 5 years. The Burleigh Road is in desperate need of paving and I don’t see them on the list. If I paid the taxes that some of the residents in that neighborhood pay, I would be irate.
It looks as if parts of 15th street is to be done. Will this be done just before they start replacing the union street bridge. With trucks and equipment right there. This may be a mistake.
Another problem is that Bangor Pubic Works, Bangor Water and Bangor Gas never talk to one another. They pave the roads and the other ones come in right behind and dig them up. Then they do a crappy job of repair. The city should have an inspector that goes out and inspect the jobs that Bangor Water and Bangor Gas do. And do it frequently. There must be someone in City Hall sitting on their duff collecting pay that could do that job.
The three parties meet weekly during construction season and coordinate their work whenever possible. Unfortnately its not always possible – if a water main breaks, that freshly paved road is getting dug up, end of story.
Bangor Digs Deep into Taxpayer’s Pockets
Does them mean they will put in water, sewer and gas after it;s done
Well maybe if the City of Bangor stopped funding GA for people that cant get off their butts to go to work and stop giving so many hand outs we might have some money in the city. I don’t understand how they can claim being in debt with the property taxes we pay here in Bangor and the so called money they recieve from the Casino revenue, things just dont add up and our roads here in Bangor are a disgrace!! Main Avenue which has very heavy traffic is awful, surprised this is not on the list? Well anyways enough venting here!!