Medford Repairing 28 Roadways

MEDFORD, MA — The city’s Engineering Department is close to completing road repairs to 28 different streets throughout Medford, according to Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn.

$290,000 of the project’s cost is being paid for using American Rescue Plan Act funds. The remaining $113,000 of the cost has been authorized by the City Council to be funded through a stabilization fund.

Lungo-Koehn said that the roads were selected by examining the city’s backlog of street and sidewalk repair, and identifying locations that have been neglected the longest.

“With the help of our Pavement Management Report, we’re able to identify roads that are eligible for cost effective preventative maintenance measures like crack sealing and patchworking, while securing additional funding for our larger road rebuilding projects,” Lungo-Koehn said.

A large portion of the repairs have been completed through the technique of “crack sealing,” in which cracks are filled with liquid asphalt to prevent water from reaching the surface and causing more degradation. The 7 remaining locations that are still in need of patchwork are in the general areas of Main Street, George Street, Columbia Road, Freedom Way, Pitcher Avenue, Bradbury Avenue, and Salem Street.

“The Engineering Department, in collaboration with the Mayor and DPW (Department of Public Works), has been holding National Grid accountable for completing road work that crews are compelled to repair at job sites throughout the City, a practice that had never been done in prior administrations,” The City said in a statement. “Since the beginning of the year, National Grid has repaired over 400 roadways and sidewalk locations. This includes over a dozen long trenches on roads within the municipality.”