Lava Rock Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 Evans Notch still deepSent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxeyeNH Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 I just posted the video below in the NNE forum but not sure how much you all look at it. Dirt roads are a total mess right now and a ton of snow yet to melt. At least it looks like a dry week. Glad no big storms or thaws that would bring flooding issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HIPPYVALLEY Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 41 minutes ago, wxeyeNH said: I just posted the video below in the NNE forum but not sure how much you all look at it. Dirt roads are a total mess right now and a ton of snow yet to melt. At least it looks like a dry week. Glad no big storms or thaws that would bring flooding issues. I have a Subaru and some of the roads in the hilltowns around here are actually impassable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baroclinic Zone Posted March 17, 2019 Author Share Posted March 17, 2019 It’s 2019. Why the hell are there still dirt roads? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 38 minutes ago, Baroclinic Zone said: It’s 2019. Why the hell are there still dirt roads? Paved roads up here are almost more of a disaster. Huge heaves and pot holes everywhere and that's with roads newly paved within the last 3 years. The 80s pattern of rain and deep freezes really let exposed surfaces heave much more than usual around here. Mud season is a pain, but at least it compacts back down to normal when it dries out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 1 hour ago, Baroclinic Zone said: It’s 2019. Why the hell are there still dirt roads? Ha, like 30% of roads in NNE are dirt. Hell, even at the family lake house in CT it's all dirt roads around...you go like 3 miles before you find a paved road. Woodstock and Union have a lot of them off the main state highways. Paved roads cost a fortune to maintain. Dirt roads you just grade a couple times a summer and it's all good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 1 hour ago, Baroclinic Zone said: It’s 2019. Why the hell are there still dirt roads? Paved aren’t much better... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baroclinic Zone Posted March 17, 2019 Author Share Posted March 17, 2019 5 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said: Paved aren’t much better... What the hell is that abomination? Are we this 3rd world that we can’t pave our roads properly to last? I get that potholes happen, but you repair them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 Just now, Baroclinic Zone said: What the hell is that abomination? Are we this 3rd world that we can’t pave our roads properly to last? I get that potholes happen, but you repair them. My road...I made 4 round trips up and down that today. I am attending a Board of Selectmen meeting tomorrow to address the disaster of my town’s roads. Back in the fall, they tried a temporary fix of road grindings from a project. I said, just wait. This will be worse...it’s worse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 It’s another world up here Bob. We don’t get the thaws you do. My backyard paths for the chickens have heaved about a foot above the normal ground level. The paved areas just can’t handle it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 On 3/16/2019 at 3:17 PM, HIPPYVALLEY said: It smooth and delicious It is very good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUNNAWAYICEBERG Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 I love the north country but mud roads would tilt me. That and the lack of spring until Memorial Weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 34 minutes ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said: I love the north country but mud roads would tilt me. That and the lack of spring until Memorial Weekend. Actually I think I’d rather be here 4/15-5/15ish than ENE and having to deal with hellish seabreezes. The interior can be noce i; spring once the snow melts and the mud dries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxeyeNH Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 when I moved up here in 2001 full time from the Boston area I couldn't believe how many of the roads are still dirt. In our town I would say 50% of the roads are dirt. I thought it was kind of quaint living on a dirt road. The town has Graeter's and they do a good job of keeping the roads smooth. In the winter actually the dirt roads can get better traction once they're plowed it's gritty under your tires not smooth like asphalt. The only problem is in the summer when they become dusty. Fortunately I live on the west side my road so my neighbors get the dust not me. Usually mud season on the roads really only last a couple of weeks and then they dry out once the frost is out of the ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HIPPYVALLEY Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 4 hours ago, Baroclinic Zone said: What the hell is that abomination? Are we this 3rd world that we can’t pave our roads properly to last? I get that potholes happen, but you repair them. Western MA has that everywhere. Even in Greenfield, which is the largest town in Franklin Co, the town has a truck with 2 guys filling potholes 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and they don’t keep up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUNNAWAYICEBERG Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 11 minutes ago, dendrite said: Actually I think I’d rather be here 4/15-5/15ish than ENE and having to deal with hellish seabreezes. The interior can be noce i; spring once the snow melts and the mud dries. Yea I can see that. I would retire up there but it would be hard to convince a non winter person like the wife to spend 7 months indoors when she’s 65. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 I went to freind’s house about 5 miles off the pavement tonight for a St. Patty’s day/birthday party. Other than a few rutted spots where the sun really hits, the road was still frozen with snow ont from the snow showers last night. They didn’t even start to break up with the 55-60 degree temps Friday. In fact, if you didn’t know it, you wouldn’t be able to tell there has been a mini-melt. Even here at my place there isn’t a lot to indicate we had the warmth. My driveway is now less than 50% ice covered and my solar panels are finally clear but that’s about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The 4 Seasons Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 Pretty quiet out there. There's not a single product from any of the local FOs all the way from the mid atlantic into northern new england, not even a HWO, short term forecast, nothing...can't remember ever seeing that before in winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baroclinic Zone Posted March 18, 2019 Author Share Posted March 18, 2019 11 hours ago, dendrite said: It’s another world up here Bob. We don’t get the thaws you do. My backyard paths for the chickens have heaved about a foot above the normal ground level. The paved areas just can’t handle it. My stomping grounds in Bridgton are mostly paved as well. Those roads fair well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 19 minutes ago, Baroclinic Zone said: My stomping grounds in Bridgton are mostly paved as well. Those roads fair well. It's all about that base. In order to avoid paved roads getting really crappy there needs to be a really well drained road base. Any water that can collect and freeze will cause frost heaves. If you are in an area that drains well to begin with, you are ahead of the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 15 hours ago, powderfreak said: Ha, like 30% of roads in NNE are dirt. Hell, even at the family lake house in CT it's all dirt roads around...you go like 3 miles before you find a paved road. Woodstock and Union have a lot of them off the main state highways. Paved roads cost a fortune to maintain. Dirt roads you just grade a couple times a summer and it's all good. At town meeting earlier this month, the road commissioner (whose family business has much experience in building/maintaining roads) stated that adding base and pavement to an existing paved road would cost about $120,000/mile and would last up to 10 years. A topcoat would run 40-50k and might last 3 years - less, in my observations. Our town of approximately 1,500 has about 40 miles of road, not counting the numbered highways. The math isn't budget friendly. I hope our 2,000' of gravel road never gets paved - the material is good enough that ruts never get more than 2-3" deep though things get slimy this time of year. Get the frost out of the top 6" and the slime is gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 2 hours ago, tamarack said: At town meeting earlier this month, the road commissioner (whose family business has much experience in building/maintaining roads) stated that adding base and pavement to an existing paved road would cost about $120,000/mile and would last up to 10 years. A topcoat would run 40-50k and might last 3 years - less, in my observations. Our town of approximately 1,500 has about 40 miles of road, not counting the numbered highways. The math isn't budget friendly. I hope our 2,000' of gravel road never gets paved - the material is good enough that ruts never get more than 2-3" deep though things get slimy this time of year. Get the frost out of the top 6" and the slime is gone. We also have 40ish miles of town owned roads... so, $120,000 per mile = $4.8 million. I estimate 2000 taxpaying households... so $2400 per household. Divided over 10 years = $240 per household to have well maintained, resurfaced roads every 10 years. My road is over 20 years old and has never been properly maintained. Just potholes filled with cold patch I also just paid out over $500 in excise taxes, this year, which are supposed to be for road maintainance and repair (plowing is separate I think) I would buy that in a heartbeat. I have already spent $1200 in the last year on suspension work on our cars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baroclinic Zone Posted March 18, 2019 Author Share Posted March 18, 2019 7 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said: We also have 40ish miles of town owned roads... so, $120,000 per mile = $4.8 million. I estimate 2000 taxpaying households... so $2400 per household. Divided over 10 years = $240 per household to have well maintained, resurfaced roads every 10 years. My road is over 20 years old and has never been properly maintained. Just potholes filled with cold patch I also just paid out over $500 in excise taxes, this year, which are supposed to be for road maintainance and repair (plowing is separate I think) I would buy that in a heartbeat. I have already spent $1200 in the last year on suspension work on our cars Small price to pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 44 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said: We also have 40ish miles of town owned roads... so, $120,000 per mile = $4.8 million. I estimate 2000 taxpaying households... so $2400 per household. Divided over 10 years = $240 per household to have well maintained, resurfaced roads every 10 years. My road is over 20 years old and has never been properly maintained. Just potholes filled with cold patch I also just paid out over $500 in excise taxes, this year, which are supposed to be for road maintainance and repair (plowing is separate I think) I would buy that in a heartbeat. I have already spent $1200 in the last year on suspension work on our cars Maybe 500 taxpaying households in our town, and our usually pinch-penny town meeting attendees would never consider such "extravagance." They/we did add $95,000 beyond the ask, to the budget for summer roads (which covers everything -winter or summer - except plowing/sanding.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 2 hours ago, tamarack said: Maybe 500 taxpaying households in our town, and our usually pinch-penny town meeting attendees would never consider such "extravagance." They/we did add $95,000 beyond the ask, to the budget for summer roads (which covers everything -winter or summer - except plowing/sanding.) Yeah...it becomes much harder when you have that many miles and a smaller population. I just get so angry at the condition of the roads. This didn't happen when I was growing up, not in other parts of the state that I lived in. Part of the issue I think is lack of commercial development/industry. Pretty much all of the tax base is from property taxes by homeowners. Mass limits tax increases to 2.5% per year max. Costs are going up more than that and everything is being squeezed. I know a realtor who just started showing a property on my street that is the last house before the road turns to shit. She told me she was so thankful that the house was where it was or she figured it would be a 5-10% hit if it was on the bad part (which is basically the rest of our road) That's nuts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lava Rock Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 5 hours ago, tamarack said: At town meeting earlier this month, the road commissioner (whose family business has much experience in building/maintaining roads) stated that adding base and pavement to an existing paved road would cost about $120,000/mile and would last up to 10 years. A topcoat would run 40-50k and might last 3 years - less, in my observations. Our town of approximately 1,500 has about 40 miles of road, not counting the numbered highways. The math isn't budget friendly. I hope our 2,000' of gravel road never gets paved - the material is good enough that ruts never get more than 2-3" deep though things get slimy this time of year. Get the frost out of the top 6" and the slime is gone. Our dirt road (~0.2mi) really could use a fresh gravel topcoat. Couple years ago I had a guy add some reclaim to a very short section of downhill leading to our driveway turnoff to help prevent runoff of the existing gravel into our driveway. It worked for about a year, but it's eroded again. Would like to add some topcoat gravel to the whole road this summer as some sections are now eroded down to the base layer. Not sure on what kind of cost that might be and of course we have to get buy in from the neighbors to splt the cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lava Rock Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 3 hours ago, HoarfrostHubb said: We also have 40ish miles of town owned roads... so, $120,000 per mile = $4.8 million. I estimate 2000 taxpaying households... so $2400 per household. Divided over 10 years = $240 per household to have well maintained, resurfaced roads every 10 years. My road is over 20 years old and has never been properly maintained. Just potholes filled with cold patch I also just paid out over $500 in excise taxes, this year, which are supposed to be for road maintainance and repair (plowing is separate I think) I would buy that in a heartbeat. I have already spent $1200 in the last year on suspension work on our cars Don't get me started on excise taxes. We pay $5,000 in property tax for a pond view, albeit nice, 0.5mi in the distance. Volunteer FD, no PD except county sherrifs. We do get garbage pickup, but that's it. We pay to plow our road. And then they get to collect their their vehicle excise tax. I genuinely hate going into the town office to pay that tax. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 1 hour ago, Lava Rock said: Don't get me started on excise taxes. We pay $5,000 in property tax for a pond view, albeit nice, 0.5mi in the distance. Volunteer FD, no PD except county sherrifs. We do get garbage pickup, but that's it. We pay to plow our road. And then they get to collect their their vehicle excise tax. I genuinely hate going into the town office to pay that tax. Similar here. $4500 per year in property taxes but no garbage pickup. No water or sewer. We paid for plowing for a few years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 22 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said: Similar here. $4500 per year in property taxes but no garbage pickup. No water or sewer. We paid for plowing for a few years Our taxes are about $1,700, for a small (40 by 24 with a loft) house with no garage. It's on 80 acres, 3/4 wooded and the rest open wetland - used to be a 4-acre beaver pond but they left and the dam is breached. That includes garbage and recycling collection, and the current contractor for plowing and maintenance has done well by us. All but one acre is enrolled in Tree growth, Maine's current use tax treatment for forest land. By giving up our right to develop those acres (could easily sell 4-5 houselots with frontage and power), we don't get taxed as if we could sell those lots, but on the land's potential for growing timber value. Should we change our mind and want to sell lots, we'd have to pay a large penalty in lieu of the taxes not paid. Our dirt road (~0.2mi) really could use a fresh gravel topcoat. Three years ago, while we were visiting son/DIL in Japan, a culvert collapsed on our road, nearly making it impassable. We wondered if, after traveling nearly 20,000 miles, we'd get stuck 100 yards from home. Road contractor did a temp fix (it was about this time of year) then came back in May to replace the culvert and put down some good coarse gravel. Last summer they added some of that same gravel out toward the tar, in a stretch that grew scads of potholes, seemingly spontaneously. Looking good so far; small ruts during slime season, easily fixed by the grader 6-8 weeks from now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 I was wrong about how many miles of roads in my town. There are actually 88 miles, so more than double those dollars I would still pay to have them in good shape, but I doubt others would Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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