MEXICO – Selectmen got an eye-popping accounting of the condition of all of Mexico’s roads at Wednesday night’s meeting.
Town Manager John Madigan, who has been compiling the information for months, presented spreadsheets listing the road inventory and the cost to repair, maintain or rehabilitate more than 75 roads.
“It will take a lifetime to get it done,” Madigan said.
The catch about the cost, though, was that it is based on 1998 prices.
Reconstruction and ditching work on 11 sections of Backkingdom Road between Harlow Hill and Gravel streets was estimated at $1.92 million. Of that 11, three sections alone would have cost $1.86 million to fix seven years ago, Madigan said.
“It’s enough to startle anybody who looks at it,” he said of the roads inventory and repair costs, estimated to be several million dollars.
He said they used 1998 prices, because that’s what was in the town’s computer system. Road Commissioner David Errington said he is trying to update the prices to this year.
Grants could be sought for the bigger projects, Madigan said.
The next step is for selectmen to meet with the Budget Committee and determine what the priority projects will be for the upcoming budget. Then, a capital improvement plan must be completed, before it can go before voters at next year’s town meeting.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us. Every year, we have to decide what we can do that’s within our budget,” Madigan said of the work to be done, answering a selectman’s question.
Comments are no longer available on this story