The driveway at Huntington
Memorial Library has been problematic for years. It’s fifty years
old with several layers of pavement and a failed subbase. It heaves
up and down, in the winter and spring, by more than a foot. If
you’ve ever bottomed out at the foot of the hill leading to the
exit, you’ll know what I’m talking about. There’s also the fact that
the steepness of the hill presents problems in the winter with snow
and ice. There are problems with potholes and puddles, and more. The
biggest problem by far is drainage, or lack of, to be precise. Water
flows into the basement and we have had some interesting mushrooms
growing on the walls over the years. In order to correct the
problems we knew we would have to dig up the entire driveway,
replace the subbase and start over. What an expense.
We’ve been
saving money in our capital funds for awhile for this project but
haven’t proceeded due to the high costs. Did you know that the
materials used to make pavement come from byproducts of producing
gasoline? When gas prices are
really high and usage is down, there is a
shortage of paving materials which in turn drives up the cost. It’s
a vicious cycle. A couple of
years ago when we first thought about doing the driveway,
contractors told me there was such a shortage that costs would be
prohibitive, so we waited.
Last year, the library applied for a public library construction
grant from the state for driveway reconstruction. This is a
complicated process which starts in January. First, you have to have
a plan which entails engaging an architect and engineer. They review
the site, study the survey and develop the specifications on what
needs to be done. Then you write the grant proposal, or at least
start it. Because our building is in an historic district, the New
York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation has
to review and approve the project before any grant application can
be submitted. Since we were not changing the footprint of the
driveway/parking lot, the proposal was given a go ahead. Next, you
have to get estimates from contractors for the cost of your project.
Those written estimates go in your application. This lets the state
know you know how much it’s going to cost and that you aren’t asking
for too much money. You also have to certify that you have funds to
cover 50 percent of the project cost because the grant covers the
other 50 percent. Since you are doing this a year ahead of time, you
hope the following year doesn’t see a huge increase in costs.
Next is approval by the library board to submit an application which
becomes part of the application. The proposal is forwarded to the
library system and if they approve it, it goes to the state division
of library development and if they approve it, the application goes
to the State Education Department for final approval. Whew! This
process takes over a year. I actually read about the award in this
paper in March this year before I was notified that we got the
grant.
After the awards are announced, the state sends lots of paperwork to
the grant recipients. The next stage starts with putting the project
out to bid. You don’t even want to know how much work and time goes
into accomplishing this. When bids are received, the award goes to
the lowest responsible bidder. The bid was awarded to Tweedie
Construction Services in Walton and there was healthy competition.
Work on the driveway began in mid-May and will be completed by next
week. There are some interesting stories to go along with this
project as you’ll see if you read further.
As the pavement was dug up, we discovered the original brick
driveway for the Huntington home coming in from Chestnut Street. We
also found remains of the original wiring to the building which is
fascinating to see. The first morning after the pavement was
removed, the driveway had fresh deer tracks in it. I guess the deer
wanted to see what was happening, too.
When all the old pavement was dug up I looked out my office window
and knew there were problems. Not only had the subbase failed, but
there were massive amounts of clay. Clay that was impenetrable for
water, and the kind that you could stand on and bounce up and down
as if you were on a trampoline. To put new gravel and pavement on
the clay would be suicide since the problem would be perpetuated. I
called the project engineer who came the next morning to view the
situation. We knew we had to remove the clay since it was the root
of the problem. I was out there in my dress, sneakers, and hard hat
bouncing up and down during our meeting until the guys told me to
stop it. Of course, I wasn’t getting anywhere near the bounce they
were, since I don’t have as much weight to bounce as they do! An
emergency board meeting to adopt a change order allowed removal of
all the clay, since it went deeper than we had planned to dig. And
dig they did, to remove the clay. Once removed, it was full speed
ahead.
New subbase, roll it, compact it, and then add more. Roll it, tamp
it, compact it, keep on moving. We’ve also taken out the steepness
of the hill, added drainage pipes on three sides of the building,
and curbs to help direct the water for drainage. As my husband tells
me over and over, there are three important things to consider when
building a driveway or road. Those are: drainage, drainage,
drainage. So we’ve got drainage now, good subbase and base, and with
the new pavement, we think we’ll be good for another fifty years.
Take a look at photos snapped during the project at
www.hmloneonta.org. We’ll be doing a display of photos and the
artifacts we found, so be sure to stop in and see them. It’s been an
interesting project and we thank everyone for their patience during
the last six weeks.
