Harrison Avenue in Berlin landed on the top 10 list of worst roadways in the town, according to a new evaluation by Davis, Bowen & Friedel, Inc. Rounding out the list of worst streets are Baker Street, Bottle Branch Road, Grace Street, Showell Street, Stevenson Lane, Tingle Road, West Branch Street, the northern section of Decatur Street, and the section of Flower Street near Dr. William Henry Park.

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(April 26, 2018) An evaluation of Berlin roads released this week found that half the town’s 92 roads were in excellent or good condition, while the other half were in fair or poor shape.

According to an executive summary of the report, by Salisbury engineering firm Davis, Bowen & Friedel, Inc., inspections of the entire road system were done last spring. Additional inspections were done after a particularly harsh winter added snow and ice damage to some areas.

“Not surprisingly, many of the roads constructed in the last 10 years are in the best condition,” the report stated. “Many of these roads include the roads in Cannery Village, Decatur Farms, Purnell Crossing, and Walnut Hill. Many recent street rehabilitation projects also rated well [including] portions of Graham Avenue, Grice Street, portions of West Street, and Kenwood Court.”

The report found “roads receiving high volumes of traffic evaluated poorly,” including Baker Street, Bottle Branch Road, the north end of Decatur Street, and Harrison Avenue.

Other less-trafficked roads in poor condition “due to age or construction quality” included Tingle Road, Cape Circle, Burley Street and Washington Street.

The 10 worst streets, according to the report, are Baker Street, Bottle Branch Road, Grace Street, Harrison Avenue, Showell Street, Stevenson Lane, Tingle Road, West Branch Street, the northern section of Decatur Street, and the section of Flower Street near Dr. William Henry Park.

In total, 33 streets (36 percent) were rated excellent and 13 (14 percent) were rated good, while 25 (27 percent) received a fair grade and 21 (23 percent) were labeled as poor.

Josh Taylor, a project manager at Davis, Bowen & Friedel, on Monday said of the results, “for a municipality … those are very good numbers.”

“This evaluation is meant to be an instrument – a tool for you guys to systematically approach roadway repairs and upgrades, moving forward in the future,” he said.

Mayor Gee Williams said the goal was to achieve an 80/20 split, where 80 percent of roads are rated excellent or good.

“I think this gives us a roadmap – no pun intended – as to where do we go from here,” he said. “I understand any citizen wanting their road to be a high priority. We’re also trying to be fair.”

Taylor said 80/20 was a “very high goal, but it is a realistic goal” and called for a proactive approach to maintaining roadways.

“Once you get on top of it, it’s much easier to maintain a road than it is to repair a road where you’re getting into the base … you can triple or quadruple the cost of roadway work if you’re hitting mill and overlay versus waiting for the road to fail,” he said. “And, it’s so much more disruptive to your residents.”

Town Administrator Laura Allen said about $1.2 million worth of road work would need to occur to address those streets labeled “poor.” Typically, she said, the town budgets $100,000 to $200,000 for road repairs each year.

“So there’s a challenge there in terms of getting through that layer of asphalt that needs to be repaired,” she said.

“The good news is, if anybody comes to you and says, ‘is my road on the list?’ you can say, ‘yes,’” Taylor said.