Roads, Specifications

Before any road or way may be accepted by the Town, it must meet the following specifications and requirements: 

1. All roads and ways must be laid out by a registered surveyor or engineer with a right-of-way of not less than forty feet and clearly marked with monuments or other permanent markers in a manner that will allow easy detection.
2. Each road or portion thereof shall be constructed and, if necessary, brought up to finished grade in accordance with the requirements of this section.
   1. Clearing and Grubbing: Traveler portion of the roads in all classifications shall be cleared of trees, stumps, roots, boulders, and like material. The remainder of the right-of-way shall remain undisturbed except where excavation for utilities, ditching for drainage, and trimming of trees and underbrush for visual clearance is necessary. In any case, care must be taken to preserve the trees and vegetation continuously throughout the construction. In no case may stone walls be disturbed in any right-of-way until a plan for realignment, if necessary, has been approved by the Planning Board.
   2. Excavating and Grading: All topsoil, loam, and other yielding material shall be removed until a firm foundation is reached, regardless of whether or not finished grade is above existing grade.
   3. Removal of Loam: Only such areas as roadways, driveways, building sites, and areas requiring filling or building up may be stripped
   4. Shoulder Grading: No slopes resulting from grading shall exceed the following: One foot vertical to three feet horizontal in fill. Slope easements or retaining walls shall be employed where slopes cannot be contained within road side lines
   5. Foundation Base: All prepared areas shall be provided with a foundation consisting of a good hardening material satisfactory to the Planning Board; clean, free of organic matter, and containing no stones over three inches in diameter. The material shall be spread true to line grade and to conform with the road profile and then compacted. Any depression that occurs, either during or after compacting, must be filled with additional hardener and compacted until the surface is true and even.
   6. Grading: All roads shall be tilted or crowned to shed water and in no case are they to be completely level. On curves, the road shall be tilted inward. Should this create a drainaqe sump, a culvert or dry well must be installed to carry of the water.
   7. Berms: Where conditions are such that the water cannot be drained continuously from the roads, the Planning Board may require berms, or "thank-you-ma'ams", at necessary intervals to shunt the water off to drainage pools, ditches, or dry wells. These berms shall be formed by adding excess foundation material on top of the road and shaping and blending a mound smoothly into the road. The requirements for berms shall be determined by the Town Highway Surveyor.
   8. Gravel Roads: After the roadway has been carefully graded and all banks and curves established level with existing grade, two inches of crushed stone (either pea stone or three-quarter inch stone) shall be distributed evenly over the entire surface, preferably with a spreader, then at least a one-inch application of stone dust applied over the crushed stone surface, all of which shall be compacted, mixing the stone dust with the crushed stone for binding purposes. The road shall be crowned in the center to a slope of one-half to three-quarters inch vertical to one foot horizontal
   9. Paved Roads: The paved surface shall be a two course type I-l or F-l bituminous concrete pavement, applied with a two-inch compacted base and a one-inch compacted finish course.
   10. At the discretion of the Selectmen, roads that have been in use may be exempt from certain provisions of these specifications
   11. All stages of work are to be inspected by the Town Highway Surveyor or someone designated by the Planning Board where conflicts of interest may be involved.