Killearn Road options discussed, but further meetings are needed

WASHINGTON — At a special Town of Washington meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 11, the Town Board met with representatives from Colliers Engineering, which presented its findings on what can be done with Killearn Road, one of 30 dirt roads in the Town and is a scenic roadway.

The Colliers representative pointed out some of the major problems. Killearn Road has no crown, for one thing, but the main problem is drainage. There is a lot of wear and tear on the road, and a lot of heavy traffic such as fuel delivery trucks and other vehicles that wear down the gravel and the dirt. There are potholes in the middle of the road.

He went on to point out that there are geometric limitations, and that the road was originally an old farm road, not built like a regular country road. It is narrow in spots, going from 16 to 25 feet, so it is basically a one-track road.

The soil conditions are not ideal. Having had the soil analyzed, the reports declare it the worst underlying soil, the type of soil that fosters road failure. It is 73% silt and clay, it freezes and is a soft material. The threshold of some of the road in places is very close to silt. The road is settling and has potholes and collapsed culverts. The representative referenced the PASAR scale of road-surface examination and Killearn Road as 1.5 out of 10.

The suggestion was made to conduct a survey to determine the Town’s right of way. A traffic study might be useful. The road right now is posted for 10 tons. Is that enforced? Does that need to be changed? The board also suggested that Colliers might want to visit the road currently, as its studies were all conducted during non-winter seasons.

Ciferri asked if, when the road was being assessed, the waters that come from neighboring fields factored into the summation and did the firm assess the natural drainage from the fields that lead to the flow. Some adjacent fields and yards have runoff. When a council member asked if the property owner could be held responsible, it would seem not, because the runoff is a natural occurrence of a downward flow pattern.

Councilman Robert Audia said he was thinking of how many tons of gravel had been brought to the road over the years. It was also pointed out that asphalt is not without its own set of problems.

Resident Richard Kirby wrote to the board after the meeting and said that Highway Superintendent Joe -Spagnola had milled the road in several places and that seemed to help.

Colliers laid out options: the town can go for basic repairs or a complete rebuilding. The cost would be, for the lower option, about $1.7 million. The complete rebuilding would come in at about $7 million. In his letter, Kirby pointed out that the annual Town budget is about $4 million. Therefore, the project would need to be funded, possibly through a bond, which has to be repaid and comes with interest.

He noted that none of the Killearn residents in favor of redoing the road has mentioned that they would help pay for it. So, in essence, for this road, the entire Town would be paying for it.

Individual mailings should go out, Kirby also stated. So far, meetings on the project have only been advertised on the website. At the meeting on Jan. 11, no questions from the in-house audience or the Zoom audience were allowed as Ciferri said this was an information-gathering session only.

There will be more meetings on the topic of Killearn Road and what, if anything, needs to be done. The information from the meeting, the Colliers report and the Kirby letter are all available for perusal on the town website at www.washingtonny.org.