Pike Industries gets Springfield paving contract

The Springfield Select Board selected Pike Industries for its major repaving projects this summer.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110606/NEWS02/706069860

Published June 6, 2011 in the Rutland Herald

Pike Industries gets Springfield paving contract

By SUSAN SMALLHEER

Staff Writer

SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Select Board selected Pike Industries for its major repaving projects this summer.

The board voted 4-0, with Selectman Michael Knoras abstaining, to give the $471,000 contract to Pike Industries for the hot-mix projects. The town received six bids for the projects.

“It’s the best option,” said Harry Henderson, the town’s public works director.

Most of the money will be spent to repave Massey Road and Craigue Hill, along with Holt and Bailey streets.

The final cost of the contract could go down, Henderson said, according to the published standard for the cost of asphalt, which is heavily dependent on the cost of oil.

Knoras voiced concern the town was not paving the worst roads in town and, in particular, the worst roads that get the most traffic.

But Henderson said Craigue Hill was at the top of the town’s list of roads in terms of condition.

“Why Craigue Hill?” Knoras asked, asserting that Woodbury Road and even Main Street were in worse condition and needed the new pavement first. “Where’s the heavy traffic?”

Henderson said Craigue Hill was in the “top three” of poor roads in town, while Woodbury, in poor condition, was either fourth or fifth on the list.

Henderson couldn’t resist a reminder to the board that more paving needed to be done.

The board during the budget sessions rejected Henderson’s request for $4 million, in a bond, to get Springfield’s roads “caught up.”

The town has been frugal in recent years when it comes to paving; last year the entire budget only paved Summer Street.

Henderson said Pike had done good work in the town in the past, doing the top coat of pavement in the recent rebuilding of Park and Union streets.

Town Manager Robert Forguites noted Lane Construction, another one of the state’s major paving contractors, had most of the state contracts for work on the interstate highways.

Henderson said the town highway crew would have to do about two to three weeks of prep work to get ready for Pike, adding that the paving would take place sometime after July 1.

In addition to the paving contract, the Select Board awarded several other major contracts, awarding the purchase of a new ambulance to Greenwood Emergency Vehicles of Attleboro, Mass., for a Horton ambulance, at a cost of $156,000, after trading in the town’s old ambulance.

Fire Chief Russell Thompson said the town had budgeted $180,000 for the new ambulance, for which the town received four bids.

The town also awarded Nortrax of Springfield the bid for a new front-end loader. The town will purchase a 2011 John Deere loader at a net price of $151,800, which includes $41,000 in a trade-in.