Approximately 18 roads in Barrington, including 10 in the neighborhoods surrounding the former Zion Bible College property, will be repaved as part of a town program. 

Members of the Barrington Town Council voted unanimously in favor of approving $1 million for road repaving. The town also accepted a bid from Pawtucket Hot Mix Asphalt to pave the local roads. The bid for $698,772 was the lowest of nine bids submitted by private paving companies. The approval also included a $200,000 contingency. 

According to a memo from Barrington Department of Public Works Project Manager Brock Handy to the town manager, the list of streets that will be paved includes First Street, Annawamscutt Road, Beaver Road, Carriage Trail, Central Avenue, Circle Drive, Great Road, Hazleton Road, Hickory Lane, Kings Gate Road, Middle Road, Regal Point, Waverly Road, Zephyr Lane, Tall Pines Drive, George Finnerty, Josal Lane, and Lafayette Road.

Ten of those roads — Beaver Road, Carriage Trail, Circle Drive, Great Road, Hazleton Road, Kings Gate Road, Regal Point, Waverly Road, Hickory Lane, and Zephyr Lane — are located in the neighborhoods abutting the former Zion Bible College property. 

During the March 9 meeting, Barrington Town Council member Kate Berard asked Barrington DPW Director Alan Corvi how his department prioritized which streets would be added to the paving list.

Corvi acknowledged that many of the roads selected for the repaving work are located in the northern part of Barrington, and that no roads in the southern part of town were identified for this round of paving work. He said the DPW tries to address neighborhoods all at once. He said it was a strategic approach.

Corvi added that the money for the road repaving will come from the town’s surplus funds. Corvi said the town could easily spend $6 million on road repaving, but added that this was a good start. 

Councilor Jordan Jancosek asked how residents who live on the impacted streets would be notified of the upcoming work. She said that during an earlier RI Department of Transportation paving project, some residents living in her neighborhood were unable to get to their homes while the work on the nearby main road was taking place. 

Corvi said that the roads selected for this upcoming work are mostly neighborhood streets and that before the paving begins, the DPW staff will create a flyer and put it in residents’ doors. He said the DPW will go door to door to make sure residents know when the work will be taking place. 

Berard asked if the plan to pave Tall Pines Drive included paving Francis Street, which runs directly into Tall Pines. Corvi said Tall Pines was last repaved in 1978 or 79, but that Francis had been repaved more recently. He added that if the funding was available, the town may be able to add Francis to the current list. 

Corvi also said that Francis was not in bad shape, to which Berard added that she believes Tall Pines is in fine shape too. 

The bids

The bids ranged as high as $1,096,050.96, which was submitted by Hartford Paving. 

The low bid by Pawtucket Hot Mix Asphalt caught the attention of Jancosek. She said that company’s bid is significantly less than the next low bidder — Lynch ($793,450). Jancosek asked why that is the case. 

Corvi said Barrington has used Pawtucket Hot Mix Asphalt for paving work in the past. He said Barrington will hire an outside company to conduct testing on the asphalt used by Pawtucket to make sure it conforms with DOT specifications. Corvi said Barrington DPW will also conduct in-house temperature and compaction testing on the asphalt. 

“They’ve been very good. The mix has been excellent,” Corvi said, adding that he highly recommends Pawtucket Hot Mix Asphalt over the second-low bidder.