Fitchburg outlines 2026 resurfacing plan; residents press city over notices and utility maps

FITCHBURG — City public‑works staff on Tuesday described the scope and timing of the 2026 street resurfacing project and said Pay and Dolan has been awarded the contract, with contractor work expected to start in late May and asphalt scheduled to be finished by October.

"We remove the full depth of the asphalt. That's typically 4 to 6 inches," said project engineer Zach Laundry, summarizing the resurfacing process that also includes base repairs, curb and gutter replacement and repaving in two layers. Laundry said the 2026 package covers about 2.5 miles of roadway, roughly 0.4 miles of multi‑use path and a half basketball court in Clayton Park.

Why it matters: Staff said the work will be coordinated with separate utility projects and that completing water‑main and other utility work before paving reduces rework and cost. Laundry said utility work is contracted to be finished by September, with the asphalt contract due in October; individual streets will typically be closed to through traffic for two to six weeks while crews work.

Project details and neighborhood impacts City officials said streets are chosen for resurfacing using the Pacer visual rating (a 1–10 scale used in the city's biennial inventory) and because work near an already‑scheduled project can lower costs. The Hillside Heights neighborhood is scheduled to have every street redone; other work noted includes segments near Fish Hatchery Road, Chory Meadows Park, Petersburg Circle and Spect Drive.

Laundry said crews will notify residents primarily by door hanger during active work because of how quickly crews move from block to block; letters and postcards were mailed earlier in the outreach sequence. Typical working hours will be about 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with crews rarely working Saturdays or late into the evening except to catch up.

Residents raise outreach and utility‑mapping concerns Several residents used the meeting's question period to press the city about outreach and coordination with utilities. One attendee said a mailed postcard was received at only some addresses on a block; Laundry acknowledged occasional mailing misses and asked for the address so staff could correct the project map and future notifications. "I just thought I'd point it out that it didn't seem to get to at least a couple of folks near me," the resident said.

Another resident said a utility map sent by the city's utility contact, Chelsea, showed a water shutoff in the location of a gas shutoff and asked that the map be corrected before contractor work begins. Laundry said the utility contact would revise the map and noted contractors are required to locate utilities in the field and can make field adjustments if as‑built locations differ from drawings.

A separate safety concern involved a small hole in the street that had been temporarily marked with an orange cone; the cone was later missing. "I would really hate for one of [the neighborhood children] to be riding their bike and have a problem," a resident said. Laundry said the streets crew had been notified and staff would verify the site and follow up.

Next steps Laundry displayed a QR code linking to a project webpage with weekly updates and a "notify me" feature for text alerts, and gave a city front‑desk number for direct calls. He also reminded attendees that the separate utilities public information meeting — where Chelsea and a utility representative named Ben will appear — is set for Thursday, May 14 at 6:30 p.m.

The project team emphasized that while the overall contract runs through the fall, most residences should see only short windows of disruption when their street is active and that staff will follow up on reported notification gaps and mapping issues.