At least three new highway facilities were recently built in New Hampshire. This article will highlight the buildings in Durham, Troy, and Warner. Durham had the grand opening in September for its new highway facility. The facility has two buildings; one houses the administrative office and the garage; the other is a pole barn.
The administrative portion of Public Works includes the highway department, buildings and grounds, and water facility. Public Works management felt it was vital to consolidate their operations. The garage employs drive through capability, and is large enough to get their 5 biggest pieces of equipment to fit inside. The mechanics have an office to do their paper and computer work. It is located next to the parts storage room, which the mechanics designed. A multi-purpose room serves as an ideal site to hold training, have meetings, and open bids. Another room, reserved for the crew, is used for morning meetings and houses a full kitchen with tables. There are men's and women's locker and rest rooms. The highway facility in Troy was built in part with volunteer help and materials donated by businesses for $49,000. To thank volunteers for the work, Jim Dicey, Troy Road Agent, had a plaque made and presented it to the public at a town meeting. The plaque has a picture of the highway facility engraved it onto a brass background, and nameplates placed on the background naming all of the people who donated time, supplies and services. Jim believes the gesture was appreciated.
Like Durham, the Troy building also has drive through capability. The building is large enough to accommodate all of their equipment: 2 full-size dump trucks with sanders, a one ton truck, a loader, a tractor and sidewalk tractor and any other projects that are under construction. The highway department in Warner had the open house for their new facility in February. The facility took just 5 months to build after many years of planning. Recently, the town approved a proposal to insulate the outside of the walls with 2" of foam insulation to increase the R value by 12. Before the flooring was poured, electrical lines and plumbing were laid beneath it. This made the installation of the utilities cheaper and safer. A multi-purpose room serves as a break room, conference room, and training area. It also serves as an emergency management center. An electric generator provides emergency power to the multi-purpose room, the office, locker room, restroom, and a portion of the highway garage. The garage is large enough to hold the entire fleet in Warner: five Mack trucks, a grader, a front-end loader, an excavator, and two one-ton pick up trucks.
When building a new garage, it's helpful to visit other garages. Mike Lynch served as the clerk of the works in Durham Mike says, "the first part of the process is a field visit of 2-3 facilities to get working ideas. You want to know what works and what does not." It's also important to "involve as many people as you can." Some of the best ideas come from the bottom up rather than the top down. In Durham, the drawing for the proposed facility was posted and the crew was asked to make comments. Some good ideas were implemented. Also, it's important to note that the highway department benefiting from the new facility will probably spend a fair amount of their own labor building the facility. This means less time to work on the roads. Municipalities should include this effect when planning a new facility.
For more information contact Mike Lynch in Durham at 868-5578, Jim Dicey in Troy at 242-3360, and Allan Brown in Warner at 456-3366.