Weigh in on roads and sidewalks to be fixed

Are you sick of the potholes on your street or your commuting route? The Town will soon be deciding which roads (and sidewalks) to prioritize fixing, and your input is welcomed. 

Yesterday, the Town posted an announcement from the Capital Planning Committee. It states that the committee will review which roads and sidewalks to include in an upcoming road maintenance contract to be issued.

The announcement lists five sidewalk areas and 33 roads under consideration.

The alert is to allow residents to weigh in before the committee makes its recommendation. The virtual meeting is scheduled for Wednesday August 10th at 7:30 pm. You can join them on zoom or send an email in advance to the Chair at jmalinowski@southboroughma.com. The message states that emails will be “read into the record as part of public comment before any deliberations conclude or votes are taken.”

You may want to hold off until next week to send your emails. The message promises to post more details on the additional cost, scope and priority designations of the listed roads posted at least one week prior to the meeting.

The list identifies the following five areas for sidewalks:

• Davis Road/Ashley Drive
• East Main Street
• Patriotic development
• Stockwell Lane/Fitzgerald Lane
• William Onthank Lane

For roads, the following 33 are listed:

For those concerned about Northboro Road not being on the above list, don’t worry.

Based on comments of Town Meeting voters, the Select Board and Capital Planning already took another look at fixing the collapsed culvert. On May 31st, the Select Board voted to use ARPA funds to cover the funding gap for the project to reopen the closed section of Northboro Road.

It’s not the only culvert the Town is investing in for a road not listed above. In June, a DPW budget adjustment memo to the Select Board explained that some engineering funds were being spent on “design concepts for a collapsing culvert on Willow Street”.