Old Sandwich Road a Mess

Every day twice a day Keven Joyce drives on Old Sandwich Road, navigating the worn-out road, the potholes, the frost heaves, and after this week’s thaw and freeze cycle, a flood and a sheet of ice.

With dozens of gravel and paved roads in terrible condition, Joyce, a Town Meeting representative and chairman of Precinct 5, says Old Sandwich is one of the worst.

After talking with DPW assistant director Dennis Westgate, Joyce went to the Board of Selectmen Tuesday night.

“In my opinion, it’s almost impassible and I think it should be shut down until some kind of solution can be found,” Joyce said during the public comment period.

He said one section in particular has been hit hard by this winter’s nasty weather.

“The section of road south of the intersection with Clifford and Jordan roads is filled with potholes, yesterday (Monday) because of the water runoff you couldn’t navigate. It became a lake and you couldn’t see the potholes…. I know there are probably worse spots, but this is nearly impassible in my opinion,” Joyce said.

But Joyce’s pleas did not seem to have the desired effect on the selectmen.

“There are hundreds of them and they will be treated,” Selectman Dicky Quintal told him.

Selectman John Mahoney and Westgate went to see the road Tuesday and both acknowledged its poor condition.

“His concerns are legitimate,” Westgate said.

Westgate said the issues with Old Sandwich Road stem from the way the road was originally built. Originally, Old Sandwich Road was a Native American trail leading from Patuxet to another village where modern Sandwich is located. It later became a much-travelled road between English settlements and a stagecoach route carrying mail and passengers between Plymouth and Sandwich. Old Sandwich Road is claimed by some to be the first public road in the United States.

Westgate said when the forest footpath was widened into a stagecoach road it was done poorly. Even in the 17th century, there were best practices for road building and Old Sandwich was built to substandard conditions.

He said the substandard conditions allow boulders beneath the road to be forced up by the ice in the winter.

Another issue is flooding, which Westgate said stems from the lack of a swale on the roadside that would collect melt-water from a nearby horse farm. Westgate said the melt-water from the farm swept across the road last weekend, flooding it.

Robert Alford, a Manomet resident who has been outspoken about the state of old gravel roads in the village, said the deplorable condition of roads in Plymouth has one main cause-the dysfunctional state of the Department of Public Works.

“The DPW has been underfunded and understaffed and is just dysfunctional, so it’s no surprise that these roads are in this condition,” Alford said.

The subdivision in which he resides has worked with the town for 40 years to mitigate the condition of its roads, he said, and many subdivisions have old gift accounts with the town to pay for road maintenance. But when he brought up that fact with former DPW director Hector Castro, Alford said Castro had not known about the gift accounts.

Alford also said that the town spends no money except what it receives from the state for road maintenance.

“Plymouth spent $2 million on the roads last year, but it was all Chapter 90 funding and no town money. We have the third largest number of roads in the Commonwealth and no funding for them,” Alford said.

He said regardless of whether the roads are public or private, taxpayers live on them and the town should care for the roads.

Town Meeting will consider accepting several private roads this spring. Accepting public roads should increase the amount of Chapter 90 funding the town receives. Chapter 90 funds are based on the total mileage of public roads in a town. About half of Plymouth’s 400-odd miles of road are currently private. The town plows and maintains most of them, except for communities such as White Cliffs and the Pinehills.