Highway super wants Millennium to fix roads

Millennium: ‘If we did it, we’ll fix it’

By FRITZ MAYER

TOWN OF COCHECTON, NY — Brian DuBois knows the roads of Cochecton better than most. As highway superintendent, he is charged with keeping them in good repair. Not surprisingly, he is dismayed when the roads are damaged, and, according to DuBois, they have suffered quite a bit of damage over the past six months while crews from the subcontractor Precision Pipeline were working on laying the Millennium Pipeline.

DuBois took this reporter on a tour of affected roads such as Tyler, Fred White and Old County. There were gouges, large cracks, scrapes and other damage. In the winter, water will get into the cracks and freeze, further damaging the surface.

DuBois estimates there are nine miles of road that need resurfacing, and the estimate he’s obtained from contractors puts the cost to resurface them at more than $1 million. He said he won’t settle for mere patches. “There were no patches before the work started,” he said, “so there should be none after the pipeline company pulls out.”

Michael Armiak, a spokesman for Millennium, said that discussions between the town and the company about the roads have not concluded; therefore, he could not offer a comment about how much it would cost to repair any damage. He added, however, “If we did it, we’ll fix it.” He did not comment directly about whether the company would push for patches where DuBois is demanding complete resurfacing of some stretches of the roads.

Much of the problem to the roads was caused by low-boy trucks, those tractor trailers slung to the ground that carry large pieces of equipment. Those trucks require special permits because they exceed state weight limits of 80,000 pounds. DuBois said that when a low boy is loaded, it can weigh upwards of 160,000 pounds. “Town roads just can’t take that weight,” he said.

He also said that when appearing before the town board last year, Millennium officials said the heavy equipment would not be moved over town roads. Instead, the heavy equipment would be brought to access points over county and state roads, which are better able to withstand the weight. Once on the pipeline right-of-way, the equipment could be moved throughout the town crossing town roads only at the access points. But once construction started, town roads were used frequently.

With the possibility that hundreds or thousands of gas wells may come to the region in the near future, the topic is of concern to officials in many towns and townships. Ben Johnson, the supervisor of neighboring Town of Tusten, brought the matter up when he testified at the scoping hearing held by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) on December 4. Johnson made reference to the road damage in Cochecton, and he said that as the DEC moves forward with developing new regulations to cover horizontal drilling in the Marcellus Shale, the department should support the goal of creating “road assessment agreements” between towns and drilling companies that would allow towns to require drilling companies to post bonds that would fully cover the cost of any damage created to local roads.

As things stand now, towns are limited as to the amount of a bond they can demand.