New bill proposes study group for dirt road maintenance

Date: 2/1/2022

WESTERN MASS. – Unpaved and dirt roads are the focus of a bill recently introduced on Beacon Hill by Rep. Natalie Blais, with the support of Sen. Adam Hines. Bill H3411, An Act Relative to Unpaved Roads, will create a public working group to study the maintenance and improvement of dirt roads, and paved roads that see light traffic.

One justification for the working group is the high percentage of unpaved roads.

“In 11 Western Massachusetts towns, over 50 percent of their total roadway miles are gravel,” Blais said when describing the legislation. “If you look at the entire First Franklin District, which includes 19 communities here in Western Massachusetts, 33 percent of the total roadway miles are gravel. This number varies from 10 percent in Buckland to 58 percent in Shutesbury.”

The high incidence of unpaved roads in Western Massachusetts shows the significance of the problem. A 2021 report from the commonwealth, the findings of the Public Infrastructure in Western Massachusetts (PIWM) study, also identified that Chap. 90 monies to support local highway departments provide few dollars for maintaining dirt roads. Another publication, the Rural Dirt Road Assessment and

Recommendations Report (Dirt Road Report) concluded that towns are heavily burdened by damage to unpaved roads, impacts that are more frequently catastrophic as severe storms become more commonplace.

According to the Dirt Road Report, “Rural dirt roads within mountainous regions of Western Massachusetts are uniquely vulnerable to the effects of extreme precipitation and flooding events.” The freeze-and-thaw pattern of the mud season is not just a spring condition anymore, according to the report, as temperatures depart from expected ranges. Unpaved roadways also intensify the overall risks, strains and disruptions in rural communities. “While rural dirt roads are widely understood as an important cultural aspect of Western Massachusetts communities, it is widely acknowledged that the effects of extreme storm events is placing additional burden on rural infrastructure.”

Blais offered Dudleyville Road in Leverett to illustrate the difficulties encountered by residents on unpaved roads. In 2019, Leverett closed Dudleyville, a connector between Shutesbury and Leverett, after it became a mud pit. A resident expressed concern over the loss of services and safety.

“This meant that emergency vehicles, school buses, propane deliveries, [and] mail ... could not reach them,” Blais said. “Many had to abandon their cars and walk home. Some were unable to get to work.”

The struggle of small towns to keep unpaved and dirt roads passable is also a result of the funding bias occurring in many grant programs. The PIWM study found that, among the 40 communities responding to a survey, on average Chap. 90 funding accounted for 63 percent of road maintenance spending. Five communities reported that state monies provided over 90 percent of road spending, while two communities reported 100 percent of road maintenance is covered by Chap. 90 funds. Because of the funding bias, small towns face an uphill struggle.

Chapter 90 awards are based on population, employment rates and road miles. According to the report, “Although western towns rely on the Chapter 90 Program to help finance their roadways, they are disadvantaged by the allocation process ... [the] formula uses weights [and] these weights tend to disadvantage smaller communities, which do not have a large population or employment base.”
Linda Dunlavy, executive director of Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG) wrote a letter in support of the bill. Dunlavy commented on the difficulty of maintaining roads when little of the state support offered to smaller towns can be used for that purpose.

“The defined allowable use for Chapter 90,” Dunlavy wrote, “is construction, not maintenance, which makes annual repair of dirt and gravel roads, shall we say, muddy.”

The PIWM study also details that cities and larger municipalities have engineers able to achieve technical standards sufficient for applications to many state and federal aid programs. The federal Transportation Impact Program, one source for larger grants, receives so few applications from towns that much of the money goes to counties and the commonwealth. In Franklin County, according to the report, only three towns out of 26 have planning staffs. The Small Town Road Assistance Program (STRAP) is another program that provides grants to small rural towns, but engineering is required and the competition for funding is stiff.

Blais talked about the model for her working group, a task force set up to look at rural road maintenance in Pennsylvania in 1993. The Pennsylvania group resulted in Act 3, a law allocating $5 million yearly for the repair of dirt and unpaved roads. Blais bill, seeking to initiate a similar process in the commonwealth, would carry relatively insignificant costs.

“I’m just asking for a favorable recommendation on H3411,” Blais said, “which would establish a public working group to identify and evaluate the safe, efficient and environmentally sound maintenance and improvement of unpaved roads and paved, low volume roads in the commonwealth.”