This year’s mild winter was tough on Maine’s recreational economy, but there was an upside: the state and municipalities saved a bundle in their plowing and salt budgets. At the same time, the price of asphalt has dropped lower than it’s been in years. Put the two together, and you get a go-go paving season.
Around the state, paving season is on, and here in Portland, it’s really on.
Andrew Peterson and Andrew Lufkin, workers for Coastal Road Repair, tap away at a valve box that needs to be removed from the intersection of Franklin and Commercial streets, right across from the city’s ferry terminal.
Lufkin says he expects plenty of work this year.
“Oh yeah. Last year was slow, so we’re trying to make up for it,” he says.
A busy line of pavers, graders and dump trucks stretches blocks down the busy downtown street. It’s one of several state-funded projects underway in the city’s commercial core, and one of many more ahead statewide.
DOT spokesman Ted Talbot says the mild winter allowed an early start on road-work, and drivers and pedestrians can expect it to ramp up quickly.
“A lot more orange cones this year,” he says.
Talbot says the state budgeted $35 million for plowing and salt supplies this winter, but only spent about $24 million. Most of the savings will go to expanded road and bridge repair work, with some reserved to updating the agency’s fleet of vehicles.
“All of this extra work we’ll balance between our maintenance crew and bringing in extra contractors to help with a lot of what we’re going to be doing in the way of highway maintenance and bridge preservation, which means more jobs, throughout the state,” he says.
Good news, perhaps, for some Maine workers who were left out in the cold by a lack of snow removal jobs this winter.
Don Wessel, who manages crude and refined product consulting for Poten & Partners Inc., an international energy brokerage, says demand for summertime workers is likely to spike in the Northeast this summer. That’s not just because of winter budget savings, but also because the price of liquid asphalt is nearing a ten-year low, down 30 percent from this time last year.
Wessel warns that it can be a volatile market.
“This stuff has to be stored and it has to be kept under high heat, so it isn’t like moving a dry good,” he says. “It requires special shipping, special handling, special storage, so sharp surprises in the market can be a problem.”
But absent a surprise, the low prices are good news for municipalities.
Eric Conrad, spokesman for the Maine Municipal Association, says local public works departments around Maine are trying to seize the moment and make up for cuts in state aid that have mounted under the administration of Gov. Paul LePage.
“The good news for motorists who drive on local roads is that the projects that have been put off for years as selectmen and councilors have struggled to maintain their budgets, some of those projects — not all of them but some of them — are going to get caught up,” he says.
Not everyone, of course, savors the smell of asphalt in the spring. Because it usually means closed roads, limited parking and constricted traffic flows.
“It’s kind of annoying,” says Lahanah Twohearts who, with her friend Virginia Carter, was out on a regular walk around Portland.
They had to detour around their usual route to the waterfront.
“I thought the roads were fine this year to begin with, not that bad,” she says.
Still, they should be better after summer, even if that means contending with flaggers, closed roads and a lot of those orange cones.