by Alex Brooks
Complaints have been heard for years about the State not repaving the deteriorated roadway of Route 22, and now drivers held up by the paving project are gnashing their teeth because it is being done.
The State paved a section of Route 22 last summer from Stephentown up to Cherry Plain, and they are now picking up where they left off, doing a 9.2 mile section from Cherry Plain to Route 2.
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Work started Monday, July 27. They are doing it in two sections. The first will be from Route 2 to Green Hollow Road in Berlin.
They are grinding up the old asphalt and milling it, then they add new aggregate to that and new asphalt, and that makes up a base layer of paving. After that cures for about two weeks, they put on a “shim” layer, and then the final road surface.
The schedule is a bit weather-dependent, but they might have the northern section from Petersburgh to Berlin done by mid August. The whole project could be done by early to mid September if all goes well, but DOT is predicting that there will be traffic impacts from the project until the end of September.
The work will be done 6 am to 6 pm on weekdays only, unless bad weather slows down the project. In that case , they may work on Saturdays to make up for time lost to weather delays.