Town set to invest in long-term road plan
By Robert Cloud
As part of its 2016 budget, Dayton will spend $204,400 for road maintenance.
Over the next five years, Town Chairman Dave Armstrong plans to invest about $1 million to upgrade the town’s roads.
“We’re planning to be very aggressive with the roads,” Armstrong said at the town’s annual budget hearing. “We have 10 years worth of roadwork that we plan.”
Dayton’s road maintenance plan began this past summer when Chris Haskins, a college intern who surveyed the town’s roads, worked with the town board to develop a Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) of the roads.
PASER is a visual inspection system, developed by the University of Wisconsin, to rate the conditions of roads according to a 1-10 scale.
Roads that are rated 9-10 are excellent and need no maintenance, while roads rated 1-2 are failing and need complete reconstruction.
Right now, more than half of Dayton’s roads rate between 1 and 6 on the PACER scale, according to the survey done last summer.
Armstrong plans to have more than 80 percent of the town’s roads rating between 6 and 10 at the end of five years.
For 2016, Dayton plans approximately 6.25 miles of crack sealing, 4.2 miles of chip sealing and one mile of overlay paving. The town is also considering four minor reconstruction projects.
Overlays are the most expensive form of road maintenance, costing between $12.50 and $16 per square yard of roadway, while chip sealing costs about $2.50 per square yard.
Chip sealing combines layers of aggregate with the asphalt, which gives the road a more pebble-like appearance.
Dayton has budgeted a total of $54,800 for chip sealing in 2016 and a total of $90,000 for overlays.
Sections of West, McCrossen, Crystal, Rural, Twin Lake and Danielson roads are slated for chip sealing, as well as Barnhart Drive, Birchwood Drive, Snug Harbor Lane, Knight Lane, Radley, Barlow and Arbor streets.
Four minor reconstruction projects are planned on Emmons Creek Road, Timber Line Road, Pine Lane and Park Lane.
Crack sealing is planned throughout the town.
Over the course of the five-year plan, the town plans to replace a concrete box culvert over Emmons Creek and reconstruct sections of Holmnlane, Dayton, Crystal Lake and Mynard roads.