An impressive array of heavy earth-crushing equipment showed up at the town farm on Nov. 20 to provide a demonstration of just what you can do if you happen to have some giant piles of asphalt on hand.

As part of the roadworks project along Route 44 this summer, large amounts of asphalt were scraped off the road. Troy LaMere, supervisor of the Norfolk Public Works Department, arranged for the stockpiling of these asphalt tailings at the town farm, with the intention of grinding up the asphalt to reuse it in town road repair, as a finished coat for dirt roads. Crushed asphalt has already been applied to Elmore Road, and First Selectman Matt Riiska is pleased with how it works: “It really packs down nicely.” He adds that reusing the asphalt will provide the town with a couple of years of material, with a savings of of $25,000 to $30,000 dollars. 

The giant machine hired to grind the asphalt comes from Chadwick-BaRoss, Inc., a heavy equipment company based in Maine, but with a facility in Oxford, Conn. The company decided to take advantage of the Norfolk project to put on a demonstration of a range of their equipment. On Friday, Nov. 20, several of their earth-moving and earth-crushing machines were loaded onto trailers and brought to town farm so that contractors and public works officials in other towns could come see what these machines can do. One monster-size machine was put to work crushing rocks down to stones, which the Public Works Department plans to use next summer to provide drainage alongside town roads, starting with North Colebrook Road. In exchange for providing a venue for the demonstration, Norfolk gets a reduced rate on the crushing fee.