Officials from Harmar, Cheswick and Springdale are continuing to work on creating a smoother drive on Low Grade Road, a heavily used route for traffic from Route 28 to the Freeport Road business district.
Harmar engineer Matt Pitsch said construction is planned for spring of next year.
“We hope to have the contracts in place and be ready to bid the project this winter so we can schedule construction for spring of 2022,” Pitsch said.
Construction includes base repairs and drainage upgrades along the roadway. The shoulder of the road will be restored with drainage features added to help remove the water from the roadway, and the entire length of the road will have a surface layer coat installed.
Cheswick councilperson Frank Meledandri said Low Grade Road’s pavement has been destroyed from heavy traffic and trucks coming off from Route 28 to drive into town.
“The road is in bad shape,” he said.
The Harmar Water Authority did a waterline replacement on the road in October.
In December 2019, the state Gaming and Economic Development Fund awarded the municipalities a $250,000 grant to fix the damage done on the road. Pitsch said the estimated cost of the project will be $284,000.
“The municipalities will split the local share portion based on the percentage of roadway in their municipality,” he said.
The percentage of road in each municipality is approximately 15% for Cheswick, 50% Harmar and 35% Springdale.
Harmar resident Amanda Duffy lives next to the road. She said it always has been riddled with potholes, and the recent patch job does not help. She hopes in the future, the township adds a speed bump to force traffic to slow down.
“I would like to see a much smoother surface because of potholes for years. This patch job is just terrible,” Duffy said.
