Watertown will get its share of the $20 million added to the state’s road and transportation improvement funding as part of the supplemental budget approved by Governor Baker in December.
The money comes on top of the $200 million already in the Fiscal Year 2020 State budget for Chapter 90. Watertown will receive and extra $73,924, for a total of $813,159 in Chapter 90 funding for FY20.
“This funding represents our continued commitment to supporting communities as they address the maintenance and modernization of local infrastructure, which are a critical part of the Commonwealth’s transportation network,” said Governor Charlie Baker in an announcement this week. “We are pleased to provide this additional transportation funding for local projects in cities and towns across the Commonwealth.”
Chapter 90 transportation funds support all 351 cities and towns throughout the Commonwealth. Funding for each municipality is predetermined by a formula that includes factors such as population, road miles, and employment, according to the release from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT).
Watertown Department of Public Works officials have not earmarked the extra state dollars, yet.
“As we just received notification ourselves we don’t have a specific use identified for the additional funding at this time, but the funding will certainly be put to good use improving and enhancing Watertown’s transportation infrastructure — that’s a given,” said DPW Director of Administration & Finance Jesse Myott.
The DPW’s Engineering Division has developed a needs assessment for the town’s infrastructure, Myott said, and that will be used to help guide upon which project or projects the money will be spent.
DPW officials will look for projects “that will have the greatest positive impacts for Watertown’s transportation infrastructure,” Myott added.
How about fixing the roads that have been torn up for gas lines- I drive through 5 towns to get to work and Watertown roads are like a third world country – 2 new tires from potholes this year
and yes I’m a tax payer
I agree. The roads are awful. Try cycling. The streets are treacherous.
Road conditions in this town should be an embarrassment to every single city representative. What are they going to do to fix the roads? Oh wait, nothing… #pathetic.
The real issue with the poor road surface quality in Watertown is incompetent management of hired contractors and poor quality of work performed by those substandard hired contractors. There is no oversight! No newly totally reconstructed streets should be being dug up less than two years later to repair underground problems and have newly poured concrete sidewalks coming apart. This is happening. Call them out on it and they will say they are overworked and need more of our money. You can’t get them on the phone or to come out on the street to oversee a project. They are a total failure to to towns taxpayers! A fish rots from the head down. The DPW desperately needs a house cleaning. I will never happen.
I agree with “Nothing will change” The quality of the roads in Watertown start with repaving and new sidewalks and the quality is poor. Take a look at Common Street for examples of sidewalks coming apart just a few years after being redone. Look at any other newly redone streets and you’ll see no curbing so the road edge is undermined within a few years due to storm runoff. No idea how this get’s fixed but it is pathetic.
Watertown is also a year behind on the bidding process because they thought last years bids were too high. Something is very wrong with the this process when our roads are in such poor condition, time is of the essence.