Two-year paving on Blush Hill to start this summer
May 14, 2021 | By Lisa Scagliotti 
New pavement on Maple Street last fall. A similar effort is planned for Blush Hill Road starting this summer and ending in 2022. File photo by Gordon Miller.
Summertime road work in Waterbury isn’t just for Main Street and downtown.
The corridor along Stowe Street and Blush Hill is next to be refurbished and town officials poring over the budget have juggled the priority list to start with Blush Hill Road and put Stowe Street on deck for summer 2022 in order to take advantage of state grant funding and to time the work with the school schedule.
One catch involves a culvert replacement on Blush Hill near the intersection with Misty Hollow Road. Design and permitting steps to replace the failing drainage section will mean that although all of the old pavement will get removed this summer, it won’t all be replaced until next year. That will leave just under a half-mile stretch of what is now paved road as a gravel surface until next summer.
Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk laid out the details at the Waterbury Select Board’s May 3 meeting. The town has applied for a state grant for $175,000 to put toward the $250,000 cost to pave Stowe Street between the dry bridge and the bridge near the intersection with Route 100. That funding isn’t likely to be approved until this summer, however.
Shepeluk said it would be best to do that project during the summer when school is out of session given that Thatcher Brook Primary School sits in the middle of the busy stretch. He recommended planning for that to occur in 2022 when the funding was in place and it could be scheduled when school was on summer break.
That led the board to sign off on this summer’s work which will involve paving nearly a mile of Blush Hill Road between Kimberly Lane -- a short distance up from the intersection with Route 100 -- to Misty Hollow Road, stopping short of the failing culvert that needs replacement. The new paved section would also have shoulders improved, Shepeluk noted.
Shepeluk explained that the most cost-effective approach will be to reclaim all of the existing pavement from Kimberly Lane to the end of the asphalt road this summer. That’s estimated at $10,600. The remainder of the road, which ends at the Waterbury Reservoir boat launch parking lot, is gravel.
The nearly half-mile stretch that would be reclaimed and left as gravel would be graded and compacted, Shepeluk said. After the culvert is replaced, the road would be paved from Misty Hollow to the area where the asphalt ends now, almost to Blush Hill Estates, Shepeluk explained. “We are hopeful that will occur in the summer of 2022,” he said in his report to the select board.
The project also will involve repaving and extending the paved portion of Lonesome Trail Road by about a quarter mile. That would be completed this year with no reclamation needed on the existing roadway, Shepeluk said. It will get a new layer of pavement, a culvert replacement, and ditches reworked. A 1,260-foot section of what is now gravel at the end of the paved roadway will be paved as well. Shepelux explained that the stretch is problematic, washing out frequently and difficult to keep graded. “The $66,000 to pave the gravel portion of Lonesome Trail will be money well-spent now,” he said.
The total cost of the Blush Hill work is estimated at $325,000, the town manager said.
Public Works Director Bill Woodruff this week said that although Stowe Street will not be repaved this summer, the Highway Department would do regular maintenance on the busy street this year including patching areas as needed.
Other business
At its May 3 meeting, the Select Board also took several other actions:
It approved the purchase of a new loader for the Highway Department for up to $117,000. Shepeluk said $150,000 was budgeted for the item and a quote from Volvo was lowest at $115,900. It will include $48,000 for trading in an old loader.
It appointed Jane Brown to a three-year term on the Recreation Committee.
It granted approval for the Leaf Peepers Half Marathon and 5K race for Oct. 3.
It also approved a request from the Waterbury Rotary Club to reschedule the Not Quite Independence Day fireworks contract for July 10.
In an update on an ongoing matter, Shepeluk shared with the board details on scheduling racial equity training that board members and town department heads can attend. He said he was in contact with an organization that he hoped would work to schedule soon. The item is on the agenda for the May 17 board meeting.
Members of the Waterbury Area Anti-Racism Coalition attended the May 3 meeting to continue their calls for board member Chris Viens to step down or be removed from his position as vice chair. Viens last fall relinquished his role as chair after public calls for his resignation, citing statements he made that were viewed as racist. Viens disagreed with that interpretation but stepped down as chair nonetheless. The board in March appointed him to the vice chair role.
Coalition member Erin Hurley read a statement to the board that said, in part: “Mr. Viens has made racist public statements on numerous occasions in the last year and has not made sufficient efforts to acknowledge or apologize.” She said Viens remaining in a leadership role signaled that the board did not prioritize anti-racism and racial equity. Several others spoke making similar points.
Given that board Chair Mark Frier was absent, Viens led the May 3 meeting and moderated the public comment period. After the final speaker repeated a call for him to step down, Viens acknowledged the issue briefly before turning to the meeting’s main agenda. “That point’s been made clear, and I'm sure the board will take it under consideration,” he said. “Appreciate everybody’s comments.”