Meredith Neck Rd. & NH DOT

[garysanfran]

I noticed the NH DOT doing work on the abutting land along Meredith Neck Rd. Since the road has been in desperate need of re-paving for a long time, could it be this is prep work for what's long overdue? The road is maintained by the State and not the Town. At one end there is an orange warning sign that says "BUMP". It should say for the next 6 miles...

Anyone know?

[MAXUM]

I noticed the NH DOT doing work on the abutting land along Meredith Neck Rd. Since the road has been in desperate need of re-paving for a long time, could it be this is prep work for what's long overdue? The road is maintained by the State and not the Town. At one end there is an orange warning sign that says "BUMP". It should say for the next 6 miles...

Anyone know?

From what I saw this past weekend I would say they are preparing to re-pave it. Looks like they are fixing the shoulders first, there are marks all over the pavement where the shoulder is in either rough shape or completely gone from past washouts. You can see where some repairs have already taken place. Hopefully if that is the intention they don't screw around and what is there gets tore up, the road base fixed, then then re-paved. You're right it's in tough shape in some spots - even worse during frost heave season. We'll see but it's nice to see it's getting some long overdue attention. I thought it a bit comical at the repair attempts this spring, a shovel full of filler hot top here and there, that was pretty pathetic! I'm sure FFL is doing cartwheels at the thought of it being repaired.

[P-3 Guy]

Barnard Ridge Road has just been re-paved (connects Meredith Neck Road to Rt. 25 just up the hill from the high school). I don't know if that was done by the town or the state, but it needed it just as bad as the Neck road.

[fatlazyless]

Believe that the town says the 4-mile long Meredith Neck Rd is owned by the state, and the state says it is owned by the town. Last Thursday or so, I asked one of the NH-DOT guys who was controlling traffic with a flashing stop sign there at the beautiful horse farm what was up with the road, and he said that the town owns the road, but the NH-DOT does the maintenance repairs in the summer, while the town removes the snow. He said the road is going to get a shim coat, whatever a shim coat is? ...... I had to move along due to other cars coming up behind me..... so I didn't get time to ask him 'what's a shim coat?'

There's a website somewhere .....maybe the NH-DOT..... that says that the un-numbered state roads like the Meredith Neck Rd ...... are destined to become local town roads .... and the NH-DOT will pay 2/3 paving cost.....if the local town pays 1/3 paving cost .....and thereafter, it is entirely the responsibility of the town; paving, maintenance, and snow removal.

From Jan/Feb 2013, this article talks about the Meredith Neck Rd at the bottom of the page.

http://www.nhmunicipal.org/TownAndCity/Article/493

Considering that the Meredith Neck Rd is a four mile long road that is entirely within the one Town of Meredith, and it accesses about 50% of the taxable property in the town, and includes numerous Lake Winnipesaukee waterfront homes, it definitely should become a local town owned road that is entirely the responsibility of the town. Meredith should be a responsible town and pursue the NH-DOTs standing offer of the 2/3 state, 1/3 town pavement redo.

Is it possible for the town to hit the road users with a special assessment specifically aimed at home owners that must use the Meredith Neck Rd to get to their homes? You know.....if you don't a-wanta use dis damn road ....then a-go getta youself a little helicopter ...... or, a boat! ... ha-ha-ha!!!

I believe a shim coat is a patch pavement job where the worst road pavement areas get 3/4" asphalt skim coated with a tar patch topping sort like a spackle coat, while the Barnard Ridge Rd got the old pavement scarfed or ground up, and replaced with a new asphalt overlay.

Barnard Ridge Rd, a one mile long road, was on the list of roads to be done by the state for 2015. I do not know if the state paid for it entirely, or if it was split 2/3-state, 1/3-town, with the town being totally responsible in the future?

So's, it seems the four mile long Meredith Neck Rd will get a 3/4" shim coat, which is not as thorough a redo as a scarf-grind up and overlay asphalt paving which is what was done on one mile long, Barnard Ridge Rd.
............

Just a thought here ..... thinking about the etymology of this unusual name ...... 'shim coat' ........ maybe, someone actually wrote the name 'skim coat' which got mis-read as 'shim coat' due to the similarity of the letters 'h' and 'k' ..... and the name 'shim coat' was a keeper??? .... because calling it a 'skim coat' would be a lot more accurate than a 'shim coat' ...... like, what the h is a 'NH shim coat' ..... ??? I guess the Meredith Neck Rd will soon find out?

[garysanfran]

Painting over the body-rot on a car, I am assuming.

[Resident 2B]

Believe that the town says the 4-mile long Meredith Neck Rd is owned by the state, and the state says it is owned by the town. Last Thursday or so, I asked one of the NH-DOT guys who was controlling traffic with a flashing stop sign there at the relatively new horse farm what was up with the road, and he said that the town owns the road, but the NH-DOT does the maintenance repairs in the summer, while the town removes the snow. He said the road is going to get a shim coat, whatever a shim coat is? ...... I had to move along due to other cars coming up behind me..... so I didn't get time to ask him 'what's a shim coat?'

There's a website somewhere .....maybe the NH-DOT ..... that says that the un-numbered state roads like the Meredith Neck Rd ...... are destined to become local town roads .... and the NH-DOT will pay 2/3 paving cost.....if the local town pays 1/3 paving cost .....and thereafter, it is entirely the responsibility of the town; paving, maintenance, and snow removal.

Considering that the Meredith Neck Rd is a four mile long road that is entirely within the one Town of Meredith, and it accesses about 50% of the taxable property in the town, it definitely should become a local town owned road that is entirely the responsibility of the town. Meredith should be a responsible town and pursue the NH-DOTs standing offer of the 2/3 state, 1/3 town pavement redo.

I believe a shim coat is a patch pavement job where the worst road pavement areas get 3/4" asphalt skim coated with a tar patch topping sort like a spackle coat, while the Barnard Ridge Rd got the old pavement scarfed or ground up, and replaced with a new asphalt overlay.

Barnard Ridge Rd, a one mile long road, was on the list of roads to be done by the state for 2015. I do not know if the state paid for it entirely, or if it was split 2/3-state, 1/3-town, with the town being totally responsible in the future?

So's, it seems the four mile long Meredith Neck Rd will get a 3/4" shim coat, which is not as thorough a redo as a scarf-grind up and overlay asphalt paving which is what was done on one mile long, Barnard Ridge Rd.

New Hampshire political crap at its best (or worse). What a waste of tax payer money and many of these tax payers have no voice in the process. Sad, sad situation.

R2B

[Happy Gourmand]

Federal money......State money....town money..... who's money are they talking about?

[MAXUM]

Does it matter when they are paving over a problem? That road will not last one spring thaw before it's a mess again. The whole thing needs to be ripped up and the road base fixed. Anything shy of that is futile.

[VitaBene]

Does it matter when they are paving over a problem? That road will not last one spring thaw before it's a mess again. The whole thing needs to be ripped up and the road base fixed. Anything shy of that is futile.

Agreed, but until NH and it citizens decide that it is worthy of a multi-billion dollar bond to repair all of the Class 2 (mostly numbered secondary roads such as 25, 25B, 109, etc) they will never get fixed correctly. The state believes it is cheaper/better to pave and shim (which means skim coat and fill the shoulder with gravel) every few years.

Mass does the opposite, once they fix a road it is done right. Unfortunately it takes a long, long time to fix them!

[fatlazyless]

Yesterday, Friday, Oct 2, the re-paving job began on the 4-mile long Meredith Neck Rd:

www.nh.gov/dot/

www.pikeindustries.com

www.continentalpaving.com

No Town of Meredith trucks or town employees, or local town police were present when I drove by so it is probably a State of NH project?

[MDoug]

glad to see the pavers
if only a temporary fix, anything would be an improvement

[rick35]

They probably had to wait until the season was over before doing the work so as to not cause traffic problems. I have exactly four more times that I will be on the Neck road this year so I will enjoy it before the heaves take over for next year. We're closing up the next two weekends and that will be it until April 23rd (ice out).

[fatlazyless]

So, when does the NH-DOT return to finish the paving? The road is four miles long, and the paving crew was there for one day, and did about the first one mile of the four miles, leaving a couple hundred yards of road with one side done, and the other side not done, with an uneven surface level, and a sign "CAUTION-UNEVEN LANES"

The new pavement is super-duper.....don't get me wrong.....or call me a complainer.....but when does the job get finished ...... especially the rough pavement just beyond the beautiful horse farm, going down the big hill toward Power's Rd?

From what I hear, it took something like four years of the town politely talking with the NH-DOT to get them to show up for one day with a paving crew, and they only paved the first one-mile.........it sure seems like the state is trying to send the town a message here that the state wants it to be a town road(?).

[rick35]

The road looks good and the trip in pulling the boat tonight was a lot smoother. I thought it was interesting that they skipped a couple of sections where the road was bumpy. They probably figured the new asphalt would just get heaved this winter. Hopefully they come back and finish the job. It looks like they ran out of material where they only did one side of the road in a couple of places.

[thinkxingu]

Route 25b from Heath's on was paved in sections, too, but I believe all the bumpy sections are now done.

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[fatlazyless]

....wanta hear somethime funny......someone told me that here in NH....the roads are so smart that they's are able to fix themselves.....all by themself.....if left alone....and that every year by halloween.....they are all smoothed out......somethime to do with the summer heat build-up.....and the heavy rolling weight of big trucks and big wide truck tires applied to the soft, summer warm asphalt as the big heavy trucks roll along....sort of like rolling out the pie crust with a wood rolling pin for a blueberry pie....does that make any sense to you?


Oh well, now that both the 4-mile long Meredith Neck Rd, as well as the 3-mile long Rt 25-B in Center Harbor have been totally paved, end to end, perfectly smooth with a perfect paving job.......the pot holes, ruts, cracks and heaves are just a fond memory of what it used to be.....and it's time to hit these race tracks...start your engines.......and get it all the way up to 39-mph......budda-boom!