Huntington Town highway chief: New road milling machine to allow more repaving

The Town of Huntington Highway Department is on the road to repaving more town streets with the purchase of a milling machine.

Highway Superintendent Andre Sorrentino said in addition to being able to double the amount of repaving in the town from 25 miles of road per year, the $400,000 purchase will also bring cost savings as it will allow town crews to do the same type of repaving work normally put out to bid to outside contractors. 

“This milling machine is really taking our department to the 21st century. It’s extremely exciting,” he said. “We are now able to pave roads exactly like the outside vendors and do it for a quarter of the price.”

Sorrentino said funding restraints limit the amount of yearly repaving. He said this year it costs about $250,000 per mile to repave a road, mostly because of fuel costs.

In the past, town crews were limited to doing patch work with the equipment they had on hand. But he said he knew with the right equipment those same employees could repave entire streets just as efficiently.

Now with the milling machine Sorrentino has set a goal of repaving the same amount of road in 2023 that outside contractors complete.

He said a crew of about 10 people will have the full complement of equipment to repave courts and smaller and dead-end streets, jobs that are a low priority for bigger contractors.

Sorrentino said milling removes the top layer of roadway by grinding the asphalt to prepare the surface for the new asphalt.

He said this is the optimal way to repave a road as it preserves curb reveal, which is the amount of curb that is visible above the roadway. He said the optimum curb reveal is 12 inches but because many roads are not milled, sometimes only about 6 inches of curb is visible.

“By milling the road you get more bang for your buck,” he said. “You get a better job out of it; there’s no chance of it lifting or bubbling. It’s adhering better to the base.”

The local state legislative delegation — State Sen. Jim Gaughran (D-Northport), Sen. Mario Mattera (R-Smithtown), Assemb. Keith Brown (R-Northport) and Assemb. Steve Stern (Dix Hills) — were able to secure the full amount to pay for the machine, town officials said, with State and Municipal Facilities Grant money.

Mattera said he was able to see the machine in action and was excited to see how its purchase and use would be a benefit for residents.

“Now instead of the town crews just doing potholes we can now do smaller roads in-house,” Mattera said.

Stern said he was glad to get funding for the machine because it will make a substantial impact on repairing roadways and improve the quality of life.

 "We have all had the infuriating experience of driving pothole-ridden local roads," Stern said.