by David Flint
Provost Road in Stephentown is getting a face lift. The road has figured in a lot of discussion at Town Board meetings in recent years. Residents complaining of dust and high traffic because of people using it as a shortcut between Routes 43 and 22 were successful back in 2004 in having the road designated one way. Six years later the Town Board returned it to two way traffic. For various reasons, including the traffic, it has been a difficult road to maintain properly.
[private]Last week the Rensselaer County Highway Department assisted in the face lift by carving out the hill on the lower portion of the road – the Route 22 side – making the hill longer and less steep, and laying down loads of crushed stone in the road bed. Town Highway Superintendent Aldie Goodermote said that this part of the road has always had a problem with drainage, especially every spring when the water comes up through the road. Goodermote’s crew will now put in drainage pipe across the road through the crushed stone. They will then cover it up with fabric, gravel and crusher run. In addition to that they have improved the drainage ditches on the side of the road and they are now in the process of laying fabric along the entire road and covering it with a new layer of gravel and road dirt. Goodermote expects the road will be reopened to traffic within the next two weeks. He said there are no plans at this time to pave the road.
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