The Goffstown Department of Public Works announces construction work related to the Worthley Hill Road Project, starting Tuesday, July 12th. The work zone will be between #11 Worthley Hill to Merrill Road, and will be closed to all thru traffic. Only local residents or businesses needing access in/out of the work zone will be allowed. Delays should be expected 6:30am - 4:30pm, Tuesday - Friday. All residents above the work zone must use the Merrill Road detour. The road will reopen to thru traffic each night.
Scope of work will include all new drainage pipe and structures up to Merrill this year, sidewalk (will try to reuse existing granite curbing), sloped granite on east side of road, bituminous curbing above Tyler, reclamation of pavement and base paving this year. If you have any questions, please contact Meghan Theriault, Town Engineer at 603-497-3617 x 280 or via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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7/15/16 - We’ve had a modest start to the project this week, shortened by our need for all available trucks to be reassigned to Black Brook Road today in preparation for paving of that project soon. A fair amount of time was spent this first week with mobilization, establishing the work zone and temporary staging areas, and some exploratory digging for house service connections. The crew was able to install the first 260’ of new 24” drainage pipe and a new precast concrete catch basin to connect back into the existing drain system.
Next week should see a return to trenching for drain installation and a few street crossings. As we work up the hill the diameter of the drain pipe will be reduced, which also speeds up the process a bit in the later stages.
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7/25/16 - The crew was able to make some great progress last week, with nearly 700’ of drainage pipe and 3 new catch basins installed on the easterly side of the street. There were a handful of underground utilities and house service connections that were unmarked or mismarked during the DigSafe process, and we discovered the actual locations the hard way in a couple cases. This slowed our efforts a bit, but there isn’t much that can be done except grit teeth and continue on.
This week, the plan is to turn around at Tyler Drive and work back down the westerly side of the street installing perforated underdrain piping and catch basins. There are also 4 cross pipes in this lower section which will require shutting off the street completely for a short time when they are installed. After the lower section drainage is complete, we will likely open up the lower section and move the work zone to the upper section above Tyler Drive.
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7/26/16 - We should be installing the first cross culvert, which affects houses within the work zone. This crossing is likely to be opened up fairly early in the day, and is located just uphill of #23 Worthley Hill. While the trench is open, all residents above this point should plan to use the Merrill Detour. There is also a good chance that later in the day we will replace another crossing up the hill (just above #25), so the Merrill Detour is a probably the preferred route for most of the day. We have also received word that the paving contractor will be in town on Black Brook Road tomorrow, so it's looking like Friday will be another quiet day on Worthley as we will need to dedicate our trucks to bring shoulder gravel to support the new pavement across town. Thank you again for your patience with the project so far, especially with the work today at the Tyler intersection which made for a few unavoidable delays getting folks through.
7/27/16 - The first street crossing was installed today, and the second was started. The crew will begin at the crossing just above #23 Worthley Hill tomorrow morning, and should get the next crossing (above #25) started in the afternoon. Best to plan to use the upper detour tomorrow if you live above #25.
8/5/16 - Another action-packed week on the job, as we’ve wrapped up drainage work in the section below Tyler Drive. Nearly 600’ of drainage was installed this week, and almost 1000’ of sidewalk curbing has been removed and set aside for reuse. The previously abandoned sewer line was tied in to the drainage system, we believe it may have been collecting some of the groundwater and causing some of the excessive winter heaving. Today, the crew will be grading and cleaning up the lower section in anticipation of switching the work zone over to the area between Tyler Dr and Merrill Rd next week. Starting Tuesday, the detour route will be moved back over to Wallace Road if you live on Tyler Drive and lower Worthley Hill. We plan to finish drainage in the next two weeks, and the reclaim of the pavement is tentatively scheduled for late in the week of the 15th. After the roadway is base paved, the curbing contractor will be in to reset the curbing below Tyler Drive. Our goal is still to have that done before school starts back up.
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8/12/16 - I hope you are all finding ways to beat the heat; things are heating up on the project physically and metaphorically-speaking. We had all three of our excavator crews on the job for the last few days, and they were able to install over 1300’ of drainage pipe and 7 new concrete structures this week. Curbing has been removed, and sewer manhole covers lowered to support the reclaim of the pavement. All drainage work has been completed, and we are prepping the site for the potential weekend rains. I also have heard from a couple of you that mail deliveries were missed this week, I apologize for any inconvenience. We’ve touched base with the USPS and hopefully have things all straightened out. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you are still having delivery issues next week.
Looking ahead: Barring anything unforeseen…Continental Paving will be in town on Monday morning to reclaim the pavement. The reclaim machine operates with a grader and roller behind it, so please use caution if you need to enter/exit your driveway when they are in the area. The grader also leaves small windrows of gravel with each pass, keep your speed in mind as you move through the work zone.
Right now, it looks like the roadway will be base paved next Wednesday, but I’ll let you know if that changes. We will follow up the paving by raising the drainage and sewer structures and setting the new inlets, the curbing contractor won’t be far behind to begin setting the granite (reusing the old curbing on the sidewalk side of the street). Once the curbing is installed, we can begin sidewalk gravel installation. I will let you know when we get a date set for paving of the sidewalk, driveway aprons, and asphalt berm. Mailbox resetting, slope and loam/seed work will put the finishing touches on the project, probably wrapping up the week of Labor Day if all goes well. We will adjust our daily schedules if necessary once the buses start rolling for school.
8/16/16 - With one eye on the weather forecast, the paving contractor is still scheduled to be in town tomorrow to place the base pavement of the roadway. Fine grading was done today, hopefully we don’t have too much touch-up in the morning from any rains overnight. Driveway apron and asphalt berm paving will be scheduled for a later date, I’ll continue to keep you posted. In the meantime, we will place some stone or gravel at the lip of each driveway where it meets the new pavement. If you experience any issues with the temporary driveway transitions tomorrow afternoon, please let me or one of our supervisors on the crew know. Also, drainage structures may appear to have “disappeared”, but don’t worry. They will need to be cut out and adjusted back up to finish grade after the paving is complete.
8/26/16 - Much progress was made on the project this week, as I expect you can tell. The granite curbing was reset and installed, sidewalk and driveway areas built up and prepped for paving, a few trees near the lower sidewalk were cut. Last but not least, paving is being performed today to patch in the curb, drainage structures, and the base layer of the sidewalk and lower driveways. Continental will return early next week to finish driveways, the top layer of sidewalk, and the asphalt berm above Tyler Drive. Any driveways paved today will have a slight lip until the finish layer is paved.
Next week, we’ll return to landscaping any off-street areas, resetting mailboxes that were disturbed, and cleaning up the staging area under the power lines. Painted line striping will occur in a few weeks.
9/2/16 -This will likely be the last project update for Worthley Hill Road for this year! This week the crew worked on backfilling behind the curb and berm, ADA warning plates for the sidewalk tipdowns, finish loam and seeding, finish paving of driveways and sidewalk, restoration of the staging area under the power lines, and mailbox resets. Final areas of seed and street sweeping will be accomplished this afternoon.
Still to be done: Street signs will be replaced where necessary soon, and the pavement marking contractor is set to return to town in two weeks to paint.
The wearing course paving of this final phase will be performed in summer of 2017, to allow any possible settlement or seasonal heaving to show itself before the final layer of asphalt is applied. If we’ve done our job properly, the spring heave should be all but eliminated…
It’s been a pleasure working with your neighborhood, and if you have any lingering questions or concerns don’t hesitate to ask. We will be sending out post-construction surveys soon, your feedback would be much appreciated and help us with future projects.
