By MATT LINDSEY

State, county and town paving projects in St. Lawrence County are underway and will continue throughout summer as crews work to improve decaying road conditions for motorists.

Major streets in poor conditions will receive upgrades in Ogdensburg including work on Paterson, Ford and Park streets. The Department of Public Works plans to be available for the Massive Paterson Street Reconstruction projects.

The Massena Village Public Works plans to improve Orchard Road, Beach Street, Trade Road, Laurel Avenue and Dodge Street. State paving work will be done in Massena on Route 37 near O'Neil Road.

County projects will include work on County routes 10, 15, 27, 28, 31, 33 near the towns of Lisbon, Waddington, Morristown and Brasher Falls.

State work is planned on State Highway 37 from Hammond to Brier Hill and from Brier Hill to Morristown.

The Town of Canton will spend over 9 percent more this year on roadwork than last year but officials say they are being cautious in their spending.

State Highway 68 heading south to Old DeKalb Road will receive $222,480 in repairs. About 2.34 miles will be paved. Nearly two miles of the Sykes Road will receive $76, 012 in repairs through hot-mix repair with double seal.

Paving on County Route 15 to the Irish Settlement Road will have a cost around $41,715. About 1.13 miles is expected to be paved. Road improvements near the Potsdam-Morley Road and County Route 27 leading to the Sykes Road will cost around $25,793. Crews will improve 1.66 miles of road.

“We are using extreme caution in how we spend the money,” according to Highway Superintendent Terry Billings.

Paving in Potsdam is nearly complete, including improvements to the Baker Road which benefited from an extra $8,000 in emergency state winter funds. The town is also paving parts of Bagdad Road and Lakeshore Drive. Other work is taking place on the Flat Rock Road.

Costs for work on state and county roads remains consistent with past years with only minor traffic delays expected. Repaving of portions of County Route 35 and NYS Hwy. 345, as well as parts of U.S. Hwy. 11 near South Colton are some of the numerous projects planned by the St. Lawrence County Department of Highways this summer.

The state Department of Transportation, currently overseeing reconstruction of two Maple Street bridges in the village of Potsdam, also plans repaving of Route 11B later this summer.

O’burg Road Rehab

In Ogdensburg, a few major streets will eat up the majority of the City’s $300,560 in Consolidated Highway Improvement Program funding. Director of Public Works Scott Thornhill says the main projects this year will be combination of overlay and milling from on Ford Street from Caroline to Hasbrouck. Similar work will be done on Park Street from Ford to 37 and Jay Street from Ford to 37. Milling and overlay will also be done on Lafayette from State Street to the bridge.

Thornhill said that will be the first round of paving and other roads will be repaired based on need.

“In the second round we will be targeting single blocks and areas that have been rated by need,” he said.

Thornhill said the DPW will not be undertaking any large projects this summer. But said his crews would be offering assistance on the Massive Paterson Street Reconstruction projects as needed.

“For the most part that is being handled by the contractors, but we will assist with water and sewer issues as they arrive,” he said.

The DPW crews recently wrapped up a project at the Ogdensburg fire department where they installed new concrete pads in front of the station.

Multitude of Projects in Massena

Village Public Works Superintendent Hassan Fayad says his department will wrap up two road projects from last year and hopes to complete five others.

Projects from the 2014-15 budget include rebuilding the roadway on Orchard Road and paving part of Beach Street.

He says those should be finished by the end of June, “weather-permitting and labor pending.”

“You create more of a mess working in the rain,” Fayad said.

In addition to redoing the road, Public Works will also install new infrastructure including manholes and catch basins, Fayad said.

The Beach Street project will repave the section between Park Avenue and James Street.

Once those are done, the village will spend $294,000 on five projects. CHIPs money will cover $220,000 of that, Fayad said.

The first project will put two new layers of pavement on Trade Road in the Industrial Park, as well as replace drainage and three manholes.

“Trade Road is in pretty bad shape,” Fayad said, adding that he wants to additionally repave 1,000 feet of the park’s Commerce Drive.

DPW will also repave Dodge Street, which is off of Beach Street.

Another job entails paving Laurel Avenue, from Main Street to Walnut Street, which includes rebuilding four catch basins.

The final project Fayad has in his sights is a joint venture with the Town Highway Department to repave Bayley Road, which is half in the village and half in the town.

He thinks the DPW can get all seven projects done this construction season.

“My glass is always half-full,” Fayad said. “I think we can do it. If we can’t we’ll roll over maybe one of them into spring of next year.”

Alongside all that, Fayad said he wants to do sidewalk repairs on Liberty Avenue, from Sycamore Street “as far as $20,000 will take us.” He believes that will be somewhere around Poplar Street.

An aging Jefferson Avenue waterline will get a much-needed fix.

“When it comes down to it, the infrastructure is what keeps a community glued together … we try to be proactive in repairing and replacing,” according to Fayad. “(Jefferson Avenue) is pretty bad. We’ll keep picking away at this stuff as time goes on.”

The New York State Department of Transportation has begun paving on state Route 37 near O'Neil Road heading toward the Franklin County line.

DOT says it should wrap up by June 26.

Motorists should expect lane closures on the four-lane section and alternating one-way traffic on the two-lane portion between the International Bridge crossing and the Franklin County line, DOT said.

Massena Town Highway Superintendent was on vacation and not available for an interview. The Highway Department did not return phone calls seeking information on their summer projects.

Case by Case in Canton

Canton has allocated nearly $400,000 to improve roads -- an increase of about 9.2 percent, according to Town Supervisor David Button.

Button says $32,855 has already been spent to mobilize for the construction projects, and the total cost to fix roads comes to $398,855. Last year, the town spent $366,109.

“With a 16 percent increase in costs for health insurance

among employees it is amazing that we can increase spending by 9 percent…it’s tough,” he said.

Sales tax revenue, which Button says it down, is used to pay for road repairs and until the numbers are tallied in early August the town won’t commit to further work.

Button said Canton is in the same place as many of towns with decaying roads and infrastructure.

“We didn’t get into this problem overnight and will not solve it overnight either, Button said.

Roadwork in Canton is being taken on a case-by-case basis as the town is trying to be very cautious with its spending, Billings said.

“The money is not designated 100 percent as to where it will go. Once a project is finished we see what money is left over and where we could use that money for another project,” Billings said.

Billings said it is difficult to know exactly how much work will be done and exactly where due to changes in asphalt prices, gas and other factors.

“I always try to give an estimate with a cushion,” Billings said.

Prices of asphalt were expected to jump in June, as they have in previous years, but they in fact went down this year, which could lead to money for other roadwork.

“When you are buying 1,000 tons of it…it adds up to a lot of money, this is the first time I’ve seen it drop from May to June,” Billings said.

Extra $8,000 for Paving

The Town of Potsdam will benefit from an extra $8,000 leftover from state emergency winter recovery funds to pave part of the Baker Road, according to Potsdam Highway Superintendent John Keleher.

The total cost of paving town roads this summer will be around $334,000, Keleher said.

“The town plans to stick with their five-year plan which went into effect a couple years ago defining which roads are in need of paving,” Keleher said.

Most of the work is either done of will be completed over the next couple weeks.

“We generally stick to the plan unless road conditions change drastically from what we expected,” Keleher said.

Over a mile of paving was done on Bagdad Road, about half a mile on Lakeshore Drive and nearly one mile on Morgan Road.

Roadwork on Flat Rock Road and Buffham roads is expected to be completed sometime this week.

Culvert work is planned on the South Canton Road as well as the Dailey-Ridge Road. Parts of each road are expected to be closed for the day while the work is done. Drainage work is also planned on Bagdad, Hatch and the Old-Potsdam Parishville roads.

“We wait until the majority of school buses are off the road before we start the drainage work because we need to close the road down temporarily,” Keleher said.

County Costs Flat

Paving costs will be approximately $3.5 million and about 25 to 26 miles of county roads will be paved this summer, according to St. Lawrence County Highway Superintendent Donald Chambers.

“Our funding is up approximately up 2 percent, however costs are up greater than 2 percent, therefore a net result is approximately flat,” Chambers said.

Work will start on County Route 24 at County Route 29 with a recycling process.

“Then several weeks later we will overlay the recycled asphalt with a layer of new asphalt and after that we will install new shoulder gravel,” Chambers said.

The recycling process will work down the list above as well as the process for each area as explained for County Route 24. Chambers believes the recycling work will be done by Aug. 1 and all work should be completed by Sept. 1.

The county will continue to upgrade bridges in the area as four bridges are under construction.

“Two (bridges) in one area north of U.S. 11 on County Route 47, one on Emeryville Road in the Town of Fowler and the final one on Wayne Hunter Road in the Town of Waddington,” Chambers said.

Chambers says workers have already replaced a large culvert on County Route 16 with plans to replace three additional large culverts in 2015. Culvert work will be done on County Route 27 in Lisbon, and two on County Route 24, with one in Russell and one in Edwards.

“The bridge and large culverts require the roads to be closed, however the paving projects will only require lane closures,” Chambers said.

County work includes four miles of paving on the Howardville Road to State Highway 68. Nearly a mile of paving will be done on County Route 10 to Scotch Settlement Road. About 1.32 miles of roadwork is planned near State Highway 37 to State Route 58 and State Route 812 to County Route to County Route 15 near Corning.

Jenner Road to County Route 28 will set 1.2 miles of road improvements. County Route 31 to Harper Road will receive 1.5 miles of new pavement while County Route 33 to the Jenner Road will get nearly two miles of roadwork. County Route 36 will be paved 1.5 miles heading north toward State Highway 37. State Highway 11C heading toward the County Line Road will be upgrade 1.5 miles.

Paving will be done on State Highway 11B north to Cady Road for nearly two miles. A little over two miles of new road was paved near Old Forge, Buckton and McIntyre roads. About 1.2 miles near County Route 35 and State Highway 345 will be done. Work on U.S. Highway 11 near South Canton will see 1.4 miles of work. County Route 17 near Dean Street will get .32 miles of new pavement while County Route 17 near Pestle Street will receive 1.2 miles of new paving. New pavement will start from Edward-Knox Central School heading 1.8 miles northeast.

$5M in State Projects

State Route 3 will see roadwork from Wanakena to Cranberry Lake in mid-June. Paving will begin on State Route 812 from the U.S. Highway 11 intersection to the Kendrew Corners Bridge in late June.

From there, work moves to State Highway 37 from Hammond to Brier Hill. Milling begins in mid-July with paving scheduled for late July. Work on State Highway 37 from Brier Hill to Morristown begins mid-July with milling and paving is slated for late July.

State Highway 11B road will be paved near Elm Street in early August.

“The money comes from our capital fund…which is set by our planning and program management office and is a mix of state and/or federal funds depending on the highway classification,” according to New York State Department of Transportation spokesman Michael Flick.

About $5 million per year has been allocated for St. Lawrence County.

“The amount of paving changes some from year to year...but is fairly consistent based on the year to year funds allocated,” Flick said.

Flick said the state works off of a pavement management plan, which the resident engineer participates in, and that provides a running list of upcoming projects and identifies emergent needs.

Most of the work on state roads and highways will cause minor delays but no major travel issues are predicted.

“I don’t foresee significant delays with any of these projects. There will always be minor delays and we do our best to minimize them…but they do occur,” Flick said.