What’s With All of the Loose Gravel on Roads in Danbury? Mayor Cavo Explains

If you live in, work in, or have driven through Danbury lately, you may have noticed that there is a ton of loose gravel on many of the area's main secondary roads. Are you as anxious to find out why as I was?

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Yes, I obviously know many of the roads that I drive on around town have paving going on, and yes, I agree, the roads are definitely in need of repair, but why the loose gravel? I've never seen that before. Will the roads be staying like this or is there more work to be done? So many people in and around the Hat City are dying to find out, and when questions like this come up, there's only one person to turn to for answers, and that's Danbury Mayor Joe Cavo. I spoke to him about what the city is up to, asked for an explanation.

Paving on Main and Primary Roads in Danbury

During our chat, Mayor Cavo said, "The city needed to, and has, embarked on a rather large-scale paving project. It's a 12-or-13-mile resurfacing project on roads like Park Avenue, Tamarack, and Hayestown Road. These roads are being milled and resurfaced with black top due to the road conditions.

Paving projects on Secondary Roads in Danbury

"Other roads, like Great Plain and Stadley Rough, were not in the best of shape, but they weren't in the worst of shape either," Cavo continued. "The thought process was to use this new chip-sealing process, which is done over the course of a few weeks. After the initial process, the loose gravel is removed, and then the whole five miles of road will be micro paved with a top layer of asphalt to seal in the stone." The mayor says, "This chip-sealing gives you multiple layers of protection from water down to the road base, which could last eight to ten years before we have to actually mill and pave those roads, it's a huge cost savings."

How much is the City of Danbury's budget is being used?

"If we were to actually mill and pave those roads, it would cost about $2.5 million, but this process that's underway now will cost only about $640,000." said Cavo. "In the end, when it's done, the roads will look like they have just been repaved. "Plus, the $1.8 million in savings enables us to cover a lot more roads in the city."

Is this paving process worth it to the residents of Danbury?

Many area residents are not happy to be getting this road work done, but Mayor Cavo says he does understand and that in the long run, it should be well worth the inconvenience. He finished his explanation by saying, "I get it. It's inconvenient for a couple of weeks, and I get that people don't like driving on the stones, but if people just slow down and follow the recommended speed limit, in a couple of weeks, everyone will be happy with the outcome."