HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT
ANNUAL REPORT
2008
There are six major areas of responsibility that are under the jurisdiction of the Highway Department: Maintenance of Public Ways, Solid Waste, New Development, Facility Maintenance, Parks and Grounds, and Snow and Ice.
The Highway Department has fourteen full-time employees, two part-time employees and nine seasonal employees. Of the fourteen full-time employees, five are assigned to Maintenance of Public Ways; three to Solid Waste, three to Parks and Grounds and the remaining four are support staff. The support staff is made up of the superintendent, general foreman, public works specialist and mechanic. One part-time employee is assigned as a solid waste attendant and the other to the sticker and waste inspection at the transfer/recycling facility on Saturdays. The seasonal employees are generally college students who perform various projects such as but not limited to; mowing of parks and grounds, litter pickup on streets and around the transfer/recycling facility, cutback of brush along the roadways during the summer, facility
maintenance and patching of roads. The use of part time employees is very cost-effective program.
Under Maintenance of Public Ways, the Highway Department has completed or supervised the following projects in the 2008 calendar year:
State Funded
As of December 2008 the Route 104 Reconstruction project is now 100 % complete even though as of this writing the final payment has not been made. Final amount for the project is $4,761,924.51. This includes the $3,340,811.00 paid by the State, $175,570.71 paid by the North Raynham Water District and $1,245,523.39 paid by the Town chapter 90 apportionments.
Of the $1,245,523.39 town portion $533,471.64 or 11% is the amount spent on change orders. This amount is slightly over the 10% amount that is typically anticipated for contingencies in contracts like this.
The balance of the project work will be dealing with making sure the transitions work between town and residents properties is completed satisfactorily. This includes the tree plantings and restoration of side yards. The Highway Department will be going over the final “punch list” of items need to be done satisfactorily.
State Aid Chapter 90 Funded
Thrasher & West Britannia Streets – This project has not changed since last report (Now 6 years old) and the Town now has the legislation to remove APR restrictions from land adjacent to the existing roadway in order for the Town to establish the roadway layout. As of this writing all the processes have been performed from the Town’s perspective to obtain the release of the APR restrictions and we are now waiting for the State’s Department of Property Assets to provide that release. The Town has signed contacts with Tighe & Bond for professional services to permit and design the project. This 1.2 mile project includes pavement upgrades, alignment change, drainage, and safety improvements according to the terms and conditions of the
operation permit that the Town and Waste Management have signed for the WM-Raynham Transfer Station with State DEP.
Town Funded (contract work with Highway Department participation)
Curbing: No curbing was installed this year.
Traffic Painting: Painted 149 miles of 4” traffic markings, 8468 lineal feet of crosswalk lines, 1230 stop bars, 13,566 parking stalls, 227 traffic words and symbols for an approximate expenditure of $14,742.00. Note: North & South Main Street painting was under contractor’s responsibility.
Drainage issues:
- Paramount Industrial Park Watershed: This project took another major step closer to resolution as the Planning Department pursued a MORE grant of approximately 1 million dollars to make drainage, roadway and economic improvements to the Raynham Industrial Park. As of this writing the effort is extremely close to having a signed agreement to receive the grant. What this means to the Highway Department is that we will have to perform the necessary road work in the park on or before June 30 2009 through our advertised contracts.
- This grant is also being given to address the flooding conditions now being observed at Hill Street. As of this writing the drainage solutions are being designed, which will provide a larger and more environmental friendly culvert at this location.
- Due to these improvements to the industrial park more industrial development is anticipate which additional economic benefits this brings a community.
Infrared patch repair: Made repairs to 50 deficient patch locations in town affecting 10,000 square feet of road and costing approximately $12,500.00 This work smoothed out defective street openings to improve rideability, roadway integrity and avoid conflicts with plowing operations.
Pit Materials: The Highway Department provided approximately 700 cubic yards of screened loam blended with sand for the root bed of a newly place sod on the athletic field being built at the Borden Colony recreational area.
Yard Waste Drop off: Received and disposed of 101.4 cubic yards of brush at the Town’s brush pit off Gardiner Street.
Crack sealing: No crack sealing was performed in this year.
HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT
Routine Maintenance
Placed 299 tons of bituminous concrete for street patching.
Place 786,000 lf of traffic markings for $14,742.00
All of the 49 drainage easements the town is responsible for were cut this period.
Swept 149 miles of town roadways and 9 public parking lots.
Cleaned 1466 catch basins and 22 manholes.
Responded to 306 requests for service.
Conducted 42 occupancy inspections and 10 road-opening inspections.
Issued 23 Street Opening Permits.
Issued 20 Property Development Permits.
Issued 5 Public Works Construction Licenses.
Infrared work at 50 location throughout Town at cost of $12,500.00
Snow and Ice
Snow season November 2007 to April 2008 was a mild season with 20 sanding events and 4 plowing events. The cost of this year’s program was $206,187.94.
Special Projects
Leaky Underground Fuel Tanks: This project has had a minor setback with regards to getting the final release from DEP. One well at the tank site shown a elevated level of Aliphatics and Aromatics which exceeded the GW-1 Standard. We were so close to closing it out when this sample came up. Even though this condition does not provide “No Substantial Hazard” it does not qualify for “No Significant Risk” designation with the DEP. The “No Risk” designation would have discontinued future requirements for groundwater testing. Since we do not have that designation testing will need to continue. This elevated level is still consistent contamination issues found with unlined landfill even though this area is slightly up gradient of landfill
groundwater flow. It is therefore been decided to incorporate the future site monitoring with the landfill ground water sampling program in order to reduce sampling cost. Unless and until higher levels of contamination appear the Town is now forced to continue testing another 5 years.
Pipeline Project: As of this writing all the water line for Aquaria has been place in accordance with their street opening permit. There are some mitigation issues that still need to be resolved. In October of 2008 most of the roadways they disturbed have been paved. There still exist a portion of King Phillip from Mill to Thrasher and all of Thrasher. The Town has asked them to hold off on this paving due to plans to make more extensive road improvements to these areas before the Town exercises its option to pave.
The town has received substantial benefit for allowing the 20” diameter water main to be place in Raynham Streets. These benefits include the following: (1) $400,000.00 cash payment (2) $100,000.00 worth of contract services to build a new athletic field. (3) Several water upgrades to North Raynham Water delivery system at an estimated cost of $153,000.00 and no additional cost to the ratepayers. (4) Emergency water connection if needed for both Town water districts at a value of $15,000.00 (5) Twenty four thousand dollar sale of cemetery lots at Read Field which is now being used as a ball field but who land is set aside for future expansion of the cemetery along Elm Street West. The area sold will now become a future cemetery road. (6) Secondary benefit will include a
approximately $482,000.00 worth of improvements to roads that the pipeline will be install in such as providing survey, drainage design and asphalt overlay on roads that were disturbed.
Accepted Streets
No streets were accepted.
Facility
Pumped the 5,000-gallon storage tight tank from garage floor drain 4 times.
Garage Addition: This project was bid for the second time and the addition is now built and the additional work is mandated to make the building ADA compliant is also complete with the exception of some fire alarm work that should be completed very soon.
The roof to the older section of the Highway office and garage was painted. The process removed rust and patched holes before it was painted. Leaks still persist and new roof is likely to be in our near future. Architectural estimate have the cost at $110,000.00 including construction, fees, permits, contingencies and reimbursable expenses.
SOLID WASTE & RECYCLING
Maintenance of the closed landfill belongs to the Town. Maintenance can be classified into two categories (1) routine maintenance, and (2) damage repair. Routine maintenance covers those activities that include but are not limited to mowing, removal of condensate, sampling and analysis of ground water, landfill gas and wellhead adjustments. Damage repairs include but are not limited to the following: replacement of vegetative cover where earth has shifted; adjustment of gas pipes where they have settled; repair of liner where it has been torn; and addressing gas migration and ground water pollution issues.
It is an unfortunate reality that a closed landfill requires maintenance and that work has an associated cost to the taxpayer. In the event that issues arise, the Town has virtually no choice but to respond immediately. Typically any correspondence or action with DEP contains a timeline with penalties. In the event that unexpected maintenance comes up the Town needs to be prepared by having a dedicated account set aside for just this possibility? Articles will continue to be presented to each proceeding Town Meeting in order to build an account to approximately $250,000.00 to address these potential maintenance and/or noncompliance issues. We currently have $ 94,777.10 in the account.
We continue to experience problems with flare shut down. The Town has an air quality permit from the State DEP for the flare. When the flare is not lit one of two things is happening. (1) Landfill gas is being vacuumed out of the landfill and disbursed into the atmosphere and not burned. This is in violation of our air permit and it could cause odor problems. (2) When the flare is not working and the air pump is shut down, this causes a build up of gas under the liner. Under this scenario and over time gas will migrate from under the liner around the perimeter of the landfill. As soon as gas is detected off the landfill site it becomes a violation of our landfill permit. Locating a leak some were in the miles of gas collection piping that is buried in the landfill vegetative cover is difficult and could be very
expensive. Due to the difficulty in keeping the flare lit DEP has required that the Town install an automatic shut off on the blower, so no landfill gasses are released into the atmosphere without being burned. This addition to the flare has cost the Town $15,919.33. The good news is that your Finance Committee has saw the wisdom of setting aside some funding for such issues so it should not have an impact on the Town finances in these lean times ahead.
The Town is continuing to be required to conduct quarterly ground water testing until more desirable results are obtained and possibly reduce the frequency testing.
Even though the Town of Raynham will be paying the market rate for waste disposal the Town will also be receiving a host fee of $1.68 from Waste Management for every ton of waste that moves through their facility. To date this revenue source continues to decrease and achieve about half of the permitted capacity. This drop in tonnage is due to competition of other new and similar facilities taking that market share of construction and demolition materials, continued changes in the State’s overall solid waste program and issues of the economy. Waste Management struggles to increase facility capacity, which has a direct effect on Town revenue. Keep in mind Waste Management wants to increase tonnage more then the Town wants them to so that they get return on their 7 million dollar investment.
The drop-off facility (Transfer/Recycling Facility) at 1555 King Philip Street at the Highway office site remains fully operational. Our recycling effort has decreased in tonnage this year approximately 35%. This is significant and is due to changes in the paper and corrugated overseas markets. The down turn in the economy and apathy among residents for recycling continues to affect the overall tonnage. Values of recyclable materials continue to change as our revenue picture indicates. As of this writing the Town is now being charged approximately $15/ton to dispose of paper and corrugated. “Stay the course and continue to recycle” it continues to avoid disposal costs of $90.00 per ton and provides revenues, saves energy and natural resources.
Residents of Raynham, we can do better.
A bag and tag program was instituted at the Transfer/Recycling Facility on January 1, 2000. This program was modeled after 75 other Massachusetts communities and has provided the same positive results in Raynham as the other communities. The State continues to push for more recycling, including food waste recycling. The revenues generated by the access sticker and the disposal tag will help to cover a portion of the operational cost of providing these facilities while the host fee covers the cost of disposal.
Raynham is recycling 54% of total waste tonnage, but that is someway skewed due to the face those residents who use contract hauler is also recycling with us. This year’s numbers depicts a 24% decrease in tonnage. The percentage is also influenced by solid waste tonnage being significantly down. Revenues for recycling are strong for metals, steady for paper and soft on most of the other commodities. Since metals are up in value less material is coming our way due to efforts of other do that recycling. Municipal solid waste volumes are down slightly at 3.1%, which reflect economic issues. When spending is down, waste is down.
Recycling Report Card
|
Unit |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
Remarks |
Newspaper |
Tons |
175.3 |
184.7 |
178.11 |
124 |
Delivered to recycling by ton |
Mixed paper |
Tons |
133.25 |
148.11 |
152.10 |
156 |
Delivered to recycling by ton |
Metal |
Tons |
296.26 |
250.24 |
162.51 |
159 |
Delivered to recycling by ton |
Aluminum |
Tons |
6.16 |
4.93 |
X |
X |
Being collected by Giants Football |
Glass |
Tons |
46.84 |
39.86 |
12.93 |
25 |
Delivered to recycling by ton |
Plastic |
Tons |
41.14 |
42.06 |
30.61 |
44 |
Delivered to recycling by ton |
Cardboard |
Tons |
123.18 |
116.81 |
195.43 |
110 |
Delivered to recycling by ton |
Oil Filters |
Lbs. |
.5 ton |
2.0 tons |
2.0 tons |
1.5 |
55 gallon drums |
Tires |
Tons |
11.21 |
10.86 |
9.57 |
5.07 |
35 lbs. Per car tire
|
Compost
|
C.Y. Tons |
2086 362 |
Gave Material Away |
5200 650 |
2539 269.05 |
Leaves & grass – 200 lbs/cy dry –300 lbs/cy wet and brush 500 lb/cy |
Refrigerators / AC units |
tons |
424 |
14.0 |
7.6 |
4.6 |
49 refrigerators @ 100 lb ea. & 86 AC units @ 50 lb ea. |
Paint (latex/oil) |
Gallons |
749 |
3.59 |
676 |
1407 gal 8.442 T |
1407 gal @ 12 lbs/gal |
Batteries |
Tons |
4.31 |
3.13 |
1.4 |
2.3 |
Delivered to recycling by ton |
Antifreeze |
Gallons |
500 |
0 |
.972 |
0 |
243 gals @ 8lb/gal |
Monitors / TV’s |
|
588 |
32.92 |
19.36 |
10.6 tons |
monitors @ 20 lb ea. + TV’s @ 150 lb ea. |
Fluorescent Bulbs |
Feet Tons |
4692 .293 |
2048 .032 |
3576 .056 |
3792 0.948 |
@ .5 oz/ foot |
Oil |
Gallons |
1000 1.9 |
3.8 |
1.9 |
3.87 |
1000+ gal recycled in waste oil space heater for highway garage (7.6 lbs / gal) |
Total Tons |
|
|
857.04 |
1426.69 |
924.38 |
Decrease by 35% |
Municipal Solid Waste [MSW] |
Tons |
732.63 |
886.4 |
800.23 |
774.85 |
Decrease in MSW by 3.2% |
Construction & Demolition [C&D] |
Tons |
429.13 |
433.11 |
371.12 |
364.86 |
Decreased by 1.69% |
Revenue |
Amount In 2005 |
Amount In 2006 |
Amount In 2007 |
Amount in 2008 |
Recycling |
$ 38,993.24 |
$31,734.90 |
$60,647.56 |
$115,112.31 |
Sticker + Tag Sales |
$148,355.00 |
$159,426.75 |
$126,970.00 |
$107,695.50 - not complete |
Host Fee |
$169,570.74 |
$147,606.85 |
$109,787.13 |
$98.243 |
|
|
|
|
|
1st Car Sticker |
1,265 |
1258 |
1238 |
1211 |
2nd Car Sticker |
77 |
175 |
84 |
106 |
| 
