Solomon Road Repaved
Solomon Road Repaved

Planning & Infrastructure Completes Two Road Improvement Projects

Oct 28, 2020

AKWESASNE — The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe’s Planning and Infrastructure Division is pleased to announce that much-needed and long-anticipated road improvement projects have recently been completed. In an effort to address public safety concerns attributed to the degradation of pavement on Ransom Road and Solomon Road, $266,768 in Tribal General Funds that were previously allocated was utilized to provide both roads with a new overlay.

Beginning in late-September 2020; Barrett Paving Materials Inc. commenced work to true and level the roads before adding a few inches of overlay on the .4-mile stretch of Ransom Road located in Raquette Point. When completed, the paving crew moved onto making similar improvements on .8 miles of Solomon Road in Frogtown. Each of the road paving projects took approximately two weeks to complete.

During the past several years, Planning and Infrastructure has been diligently working to complete prioritized road projects identified in the Tribe’s 20-Year Long Range Transportation Plan. Due to COVID-19 however, work that began in Fall 2019 to reconstruct Helena Road was temporarily suspended until it resumed in July 2020. It was followed by culvert replacements for Tarbell Road and Beaver Meadow Road—before starting work on the two repaving projects.

As important road improvement projects resumed, so did Planning and Infrastructure’s efforts to update the Long-Range Transportation Plan. The 20-Year LRTP Draft will soon be released to the community for a 30-day public comment period. Submissions received during this period will contribute to the plan’s overall development and will be used as a blueprint for Planning and Infrastructure’s transportation program, which will be updated every five years

With the completion of important road projects for the current year, the Tribe takes this time to say “Niawenko:wa/Thank you very much” to Planning and Infrastructure’s Roads Department for keeping public safety a priority during the pandemic. Your efforts to catchup on important road projects helps ensure that our roadways continue to be safe for motorists and pedestrians.

SRMT Executive Director Tsiorasa Barreiro echoed that sentiment in saying, “Our Road’s Team does an outstanding job for our community with the resources available. Solomon Road and Ransom Road have been in poor shape for quite some time and we’re all happy to see the improvements to them. Roads in Indian Country are generally in bad shape, but we’re fortunate in Akwesasne that our own tribal revenues have been used to augment the limited federal road funding that we do receive. Public safety is the number one priority and we will continue these efforts into 2021 as best we can.”

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The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Council is the duly elected and federally recognized government of the Saint Regis Mohawk People.