12/06/07 - County spending $30,000 on stronger fix for Daisy Hollow Road

Highway department will grind strip of road, then apply hot asphalt patch to stabilize it.

(As published by Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel reporting)

The county will try a $30,000 semi-permanent fix on Daisy Hollow Road in Harford to alleviate some of the concerns over the deteriorating road surface.

The road is in a near constant state of disrepair because of poor underlying soil.

County Highway Committee Chair Dan Tagliente (D-7th Ward) inspected the failing section of road with Highway Superintendent Don Chambers and the two decided to pursue more significant repairs to the road than those included in the annual maintenance of the road, estimated at about $4,000.

“As you come up the hill there, if you’re going a pretty good speed, it looks like it could cause some problems,” Tagliente said during a Highway Committee meeting Tuesday morning.

Chambers said his department would grind down some of the roadway and would then apply a hot asphalt patch to stabilize the road. The drainage along the road would also be cleaned out, Tagliente said.

“It’s not permanent by any means, but it will be a more effective patch,” Chambers said.

The $30,000 funding for the work would be diverted from funds budgeted for 2008 to repair McGraw-Marathon Road. Chambers said it would be a matter of “trimming something back,” and wouldn’t have a disproportionate impact on that project.

Residents near and along Daisy Hollow Road had petitioned the county in March, seeking to get the road fixed.

A $32,200 study by the engineering firm Barton & Loguidice estimated the cost of repairing an approximately 300-foot section of the road to be between $500,000 and $600,000, not including engineering and the acquisitions of rights of way. Chambers has estimated the total cost of a permanent repair at about $800,000.

About 285 cars travel the road daily.