Town of Jay to begin work on Grove Road

AU SABLE FORKS | Starting Oct. 1, work will be underway to replace the existing culvert on Grove Road, allowing it to reopen with no restrictions by mid-November. "It's rotting, and our highway guys are out there almost every day cleaning out debris caused by beavers damming it up," said Town Supervisor Matt Stanley. "It's definitely a priority that needs to be addressed." The town first noticed a problem with the culvert after a storm in October 2023. "The culvert got plugged, causing the road to flood and sinkholes to form." Since then, the small culvert, which dates back to the 1990s, has deteriorated, necessitating the town's borrowing of road plating material from the county to repair it. This has resulted in repeated shutdowns, forcing some travelers to take an 8-mile detour. Eventually, a weight limit of 5 tons was also enforced, said Stanley. "There were some heavy log trucks that decided to keep driving over it, which caused a part of the culvert actually to collapse." The town originally applied for funding through BRIDGE NY, a program administered by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) that provides funding for the rehabilitation and replacement of locally owned bridges and culverts; however, they were unsuccessful. So, the town needed to turn to primarily CHIPS funding, with the remaining coming from the fund balance, Stanley clarified. There will be no additional costs to the taxpayers. The town received four bids and went with Kubricky Construction Corp. of Queensbury for $483,869. Kubricky will replace the existing 4-foot culvert with an approximate 15-foot stream simulation culvert — a tunnel-like structure that channels water, such as a stream or drainage. But this environmentally friendly design re-creates a natural stream bed inside the structure, creating a continuous channel that wildlife can travel through just as they would in an unblocked stream. While this portion of the project is anticipated to be completed by mid-November, Kubricky will return to pave and install guardrails in the spring. Stanley encourages residents who have yet to sign up for the town-wide alert system to do so for updates, as well as check out the town website (townofjayny.gov) and Facebook page.

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Town of Jay to begin work on Grove Road

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