BERNE — Recent renovations to Bush Drive, in Berne, have compounded hazardous conditions on that road, says Bush Drive resident Rick Rapp.

Rapp gave a presentation to the town board at its Sept. 22 meeting, demonstrating how excessive that road’s crown is, which poses a threat to drivers who may drift near or over the center-line and be pulled into the other lane. Drivers on Bush Drive tend to move closer to the center, Rapp said, because the slope of the lane they should be in draws them into the ditch.

Rapp, who has more than 30 years of experience with roadway and utility construction and is president of Trinity Construction, said the crown has been a problem for many years, but that Highway Superintendent Randy Bashwinger ignored Rapp’s warnings about the project before it began and, now finished, the project merely “painted [the road] black,” leaving the crown unaffected and as dangerous as ever.

“Unfortunately, what happened was we got a two-and-a-half inch overlay on top of a crappy job,” Rapp told the board.

Bashwinger, who did not attend the Sept. 22 meeting, declined to comment on these criticisms for this story.

The job was carried out by New Castle Paving, which has paved Bush Drive, Beaver Dam Road, and Woodstock Road in Berne. Meeting minutes show that the town board accepted — 4-to-1, with Councilman Joel Willsey, the board’s only Democrat and a frequent critic of Bashwinger, voting “nay” — a bid of $253,660 for paving from New Castle on July 14, 2021. 

The three board members present at the Sept. 22 meeting — Supervisor Sean Lyons, Councilman Leo Vane, and Willsey — collectively acknowledged that Rapp had also reached out to the board privately with his concerns, and Lyons and Willsey both confirmed that they drove the road themselves to evaluate Rapp’s claims, which they found to be valid. 

“I was shocked on the ninth [of September] to find out that it was done on the eighth when we were having these discussions on the seventh,” Lyons said. 

Willsey, a retired Department of Transportation employee, shared a slideshow with town board members and The Enterprise that displays photos he took on that road and calculations he made to determine the cross slopes and the rollover (or crown) in various sections of the road. 

One lane in a section calculated by Willsey has a cross slope of 8.8 percent while the other has a cross slope of 7.8 percent, culminating in a rollover of 16.6 percent. The New York State Highway Design Manual states that rollovers should not exceed 4 percent. 

Upon receiving Willsey’s slideshow, The Enterprise sent it to the Cornell Local Roads Program for verification and insight. However, Marketing and Communications Manager Adam Howell said that the program “can’t offer an opinion without seeing the site and doing more of our own analysis. There is some variability associated with these things and to determine if there is an issue, our engineers would need to examine the site. We do technical assistance visits like that when invited by the local super or a town official.”

Rapp said at the meeting that he determined the average rollover to be around 8 percent and that he found specific locations had a rollover of 13 percent. 

“I think what we need to do is go out there, mill it … and then use the millings and some pressure to re-establish the cross slopes we need there to be safe, compact it in place, let it settle for a year, and come back next year,” Willsey said. 

In addition to the excessive slopes and rollovers on Bush Drive, Rapp said there are also issues with the shoulders of all the roads that were paved.

“The shoulders got backed up on all three of those roads yesterday,” Rapp said. He then asked if the board “would anticipate that that shoulder material be compacted,” to which Willsey responded, “Absolutely.”

“OK, so, the shoulder material is left flush with the edge of pavement,” Rapp said. “What’s going to happen, just so you know, is if we get a gullywasher, or rainstorm, all that work you did is going to go [away],” Rapp said, using a whooshing sound and hand gesture.

“Even if we don’t get a gullywasher, over time, that two inches or inch-and-a-half of shoulder material that was put in there will naturally consolidate down to half-an-inch,” Rapp said, going on to explain that, especially in sections where the road is excessively sloped, water will “create a gully … and that water will go underneath that asphalt and prematurely crack that edge.”

Willsey sent photos to The Enterprise on Friday afternoon of the uncompacted shoulder along Bush Drive and described how the front wheel of his pickup truck sank approximately three inches as he drove over it. 

“This can make it very difficult to pull back onto the pavement, defeating the purpose of the shoulder,” Willsey said in a text. He added that he agreed with Rapp’s assessment of the shoulders.

“Instead of getting three miles of shoulder done in a day and boasting about it,” Rapp said during the meeting, “how about we get one mile of shoulder done and do it right?”

Willsey, who has been a frequent critic of Bashwinger not following protocols, told the board that he was in discussion with the Department of Transportation about the issue, which Lyons said was “inappropriate” since Willsey was acting “on behalf of the board” without authorization. 

However, in a notable departure from his usual defense of Bashwinger when Willsey launches criticism about Bashwinger’s management of town roads, Lyons said that he “thinks the premise of what [Willsey’s] doing is accurate.” 

The board ultimately tabled discussion without taking action.

On Oct. 2, after this story was printed, Bashwinger told The Enterprise that the project is intended to be funded through the state’s Consolidated Highway Improvement Program, known as CHIPs. 

He also forwarded an email conversation involving Willsey and Department of Transportation Regional Planning and Program Manager Bob Rice, wherein Willsey had voiced his concerns about the issues on Bush Drive. 

Rice explained to Willsey that standards and practices for road design is a “local municipal function,” and that, “When a municipality seeks reimbursement under the CHIPS program, the local responsible official certifies that standards were utilized.”

“A majority of your [Willsey’s] discussion focuses on design guidance related to pavement cross slope and demonstrates your knowledge and experience on the subject,” Rice said. “That said, simplified pavement preservation projects do not require the incorporation of cross slope as a critical design element under NYSDOT’s Highway Design Manual. 

“In fact, the entire section containing Critical Design Elements are not required to be incorporated into pavement preservation projects when following NYSDOT project development procedures,” Rice continued. “As I discussed with Highway Superintendent Bashwinger, it certainly is good practice to document the decision making process when choosing a pavement treatment. This should include any limitations of the project’s scope to address a particular roadway condition or deficiency.”