Alexandria Town Ordinance

Class VI Road Minimum Specifications

In order to protect the Town of Alexandria against excessive costs of  trying to provide services; such as fire, police, ambulance, etc., on highways of sub-standard nature, e.g. too narrow, steep, muddy, or rough, etc.; be it enacted by the Town Meeting of Alexandria here assembled this fifteenth day of March, 2007,  the following ordinance:

   Minimum standards for the construction or re-construction of Class VI Roads within the Town of Alexandria as required for private landowners or private contractors acting on behalf of said landowners. These standards are designed for landowners seeking to reside on land accessed by Class VI Roads. These standards are designed for subdivisions containing no more than two house lots per landowner. Developments or large subdivisions would require further review and different standards due to greater traffic volume and greater impacts to the road.

1.     The Right-of-Way shall be determined by the Board of Selectmen, either through Town records, evidence shown on roadsides, or layout.

2.     The traveled section of roadway shall be a minimum of 12 feet in width. Shoulders of 1 foot in width on each side of roadway will also be required.

3.     Any unsuitable materials shall be removed from roadbed before adding gravels.

4.     Gravels will consist of a base layer of 12” of bank run gravel, not to exceed 8” in any dimension. If base gravels are believed to be in place, test pits shall be dug at expense to landowner, in several locations in roadbed. Finish surface shall consist of 6” of 1-1/2” crushed gravel. Materials shall be compacted to a degree acceptable to road construction standards.

5.     Installation of proper ditches, culvert pipes of 18” minimum diameter, and other drainage to be determined upon pre-construction review.

6.     If distance along roadway to landowner access point is greater than 800 feet, then construction of pull-off will be required. The pull-off will be constructed of same materials and method specified for the roadway. Pull-off measurements shall be 8 feet wide by 40 feet long. The pull-off is designed for the passage of two vehicles not for storage or parking.

7.     The distance a landowner shall be required to improve along the roadway will be from the point at which the roadway stops meeting these specifications to the point of access to their land, as determined by the Road Agent at pre-construction review. The Board of Selectmen shall have final ruling authority for these requirements after advice from the Road Agent who shall be granted full supervisory control of these specifications and regulations. Should it occur that these specifications cannot be met; the Road Agent shall promptly advise the Board of Selectmen since such condition may have adverse effect on the issuance of a Building Permit, or other permit requirement.

      Construction of a road in this manner does not imply that the road will convert to a Class V Road, nor does it imply that the town will accept it as a town road. In order for a road to become town-maintained, an affirmative vote of the majority of the body at the annual town meeting is required. Until such a vote, the town will not be responsible for any costs related to construction or maintenance of a Class VI roadway.  A related requirement would be that the road be upgraded to the Class V Minimum Specifications.