LYNNFIELD — At the Nov. 13 special town meeting, residents will vote on a new road improvement program.

Section 6 provides a debt exclusion of $12,850,000 to pay project costs over 10 years. City Administrator Rob Dolan said excluding debt would double the amount of money invested in roads.

New England’s roads are “incredibly difficult to maintain,” due to many factors at play, including dilapidated infrastructure and harsh winter conditions, Dolan said in a recent Town Talk segment, adding that much Development in Lynnfield took place in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

“We’re in a time right now where these roads are all starting to collapse at the same time,” Dolan said, adding that increased fuel and labor are creating real challenges. “You have all these problems and wear and tear that have created a crisis. »

DPW Director John Scenna said that over the past decade the amount of funds received from the state has been relatively stable, but it wasn’t until 2017 that the city began to match the Ch . of the state. 90 financing.

“We’ve started to make progress and do a larger road program, but…it’s not enough,” Scenna said. “We certainly cannot do as much today as we could ten years ago. Coming out of COVID, salary adjustments, material cost was higher, road repair cost per foot is significantly higher.

Dolan pointed to the money the city has spent on roads over the past seven years. The city’s contribution is $3 million, or 41% of the total cost. 90 state funds totaled $2.5 million (35%), other funds from state surplus totaled $1 million (14%), and special grants totaled $750,000 (10%).

“We’ve almost seen an about-face on funding, which is difficult,” Dolan said.

Scenna said the process of assessing road conditions is now almost exclusively computer-generated by AI, compared to traditional methods of manually counting potholes or measuring crack widths.

An analysis of Lynnfield’s roads reveals that a relatively equal number of roads were designated as poor (21.87 miles), fair (23.01 miles), or good (25.83 miles) with an estimated total repair cost of $23.5 million. The lion’s share of repair costs goes to people considered poor, $17.3 million.

Scenna said that compared to other similar communities, Lynnfield’s average road rating is “on the lower end of average.”

Scenna said that when budgeting for repairs, the model allocates 60 to 65 percent to poor roads, 30 percent to good roads and 10 percent to good roads, saying only repairing poor roads state is not a viable option.

“That’s not enough. If you only do that, you will never catch up,” he said. “We need to take this group of fair roads and make sure that they stay at least in that fair condition and don’t deteriorate further to the point where they fall into the category of poor.”

Dolan said the current proposal presented to residents of $2 million a year over 10 years represents “a more solid investment.”

Under the proposal, the city will continue to spend about $415,000 on Ch. 90 funds and continue the city’s $300,000 capital investment. The requested debt exclusion would add an additional $1,285,000 per year, with the additional residential tax increase equaling approximately $258 per average assessed home over 10 years.

Scenna said if the item is approved, the city will be able to plan for upcoming improvements/repairs over the winter.

“We could tell our contractors this is what we do in the spring and this is what we do in the summer and then Ch. 90 money comes in July and that’s the fall program” , said Scenna. “We could triple what we do over these three segments.”

Scenna said one factor to consider in choosing which roads to repair involves utilities with underground utilities.

“Their work also defines part of what we do. They might want to work where we’re going. We may want to work where they go. Or they might want to go somewhere we won’t be. Scenna said. “When it comes to disruption and traffic, it’s not just our job, it’s their job. »

Scenna said the department begins planning the year’s road work in January, after which it notifies National Grid and the two water districts where it will work.

“You want to give them a block for a year or two years of work,” Scenna said. “Sometimes they leave for work before us and sometimes they don’t need to do any work. Sometimes they may say they want to do work there, but not until the fall, which pushes that street out another year.

“It would also be a very attractive city for bidders, which would give us more stability than working with a single contractor,” he said.

Scenna said the city is currently bidding with North Reading and Middleton and “with a program like this and the continuity of investment over a decade that could change where we might be bidding ourselves in January.”