EXETER — The Public Works Department is finishing projects for the 2007-08 budget year and starting work on 2008-09 projects.

Public Works Director Stephen R. Mattscheck said the first year of a three-year road improvement program ends June 30.

Work began last summer with Mail Road and Hog House Hill Road, which were changed from oiled roads to asphalt.

On Mail Road, an “in-place reclamation” was done.

“We have a machine that comes in and grinds the oil with the dirt to make a better base,” Mattscheck said. The road was widened, the shoulders were resloped and a drainage system was installed.

After the surface was regraded, two layers of asphalt were applied, a binder layer and a finish layer. Exeter hires a contractor to deliver the asphalt and spread it with a paver.

Although the life expectancy of a road depends on the traffic it carries, he said he expects that work to last 20 to 25 years.

On Hog House Hill crews changed the grade to improve drainage and remove a hump that was creating puddles. The surface was leveled and a finish layer of asphalt was applied.

Stone seal projects were done on four roads: West Shore Drive in the Boone Lake area, Summit Road in West Exeter, Stony Fort Road near the University of Rhode Island and New Road in the middle of town.

Each road received a leveling course of asphalt, which was then sprayed with hot oil. A special machine, Mattscheck said, puts down a layer of stone, which is then rolled. “Traffic does the rest,” he said, and then a street sweeper picks up leftover stone for use elsewhere. Mattscheck said the condition of roads determines which will get attention. “Most of the time it’s to maintain the surface, to keep them from becoming a more costly repair.

“Everybody wants their roads fixed, and I’m all for it,” he said. “Unfortunately, it requires money. Without the money I can’t work, and I like to work, so …”

Ten years ago Mattscheck started asking for the money to start the three-year plan.

Prep work, such as trimming or removing trees and clearing large stones, has already started on Liberty Church Road, which is slated for improvements in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

To widen Liberty Church Road, large stones in the shoulder have to be removed.

“Large means bigger than our truck,” Mattscheck said. “We remove them with the excavator, load the ones we can. The ones we can’t, we’ll break them.” He said jackhammers drill holes to place what he calls “feathers and wedges,” which are pounded in with tools run by an air compressor.

“It’s loud and it’s obnoxious,” to break up the stones, “but it’s a necessary evil,” he said. “We try to reuse them on building headwalls around town when we have the opportunity, but right now we’re stockpiling them.”

Hallville Road, which was dirt when Mattscheck lived there as a child, will get the same treatment, finishing with an asphalt overlay.

“We will clean up as much of the shoulders as we have time for,” he said.

Because the contract doesn’t expire until late July, he said, asphalt is still being delivered at the 2007-08 price.

After that, “I can only estimate. It’s not something you even want to think about.”

Asphalt, also known as “bituminous concrete overlay,” consists of oil, sand and stone. The sand and stone come from West Greenwich.

In the third year, William Reynolds Road and Purgatory Road will be upgraded.

After each summer’s road work, crews work through the fall to finish capping the landfill with earth and a special fabric.

He’s working on a list of projects to propose for the Financial Town Meeting in May of 2010.

dnaylor@projo.com