EDITOR’S NOTE: The Bricks & Mortar Report provides updates on major construction projects in Chenango County.

Chenango County Public Works Department:

• Higher prices have forced the county’s DPW to cut back on 20 miles of roadway improvements scheduled for the year. The August escalation rate for blacktop, added to the base rate of $28.20 a ton, increased from $17 in July to $28. “Nobody can pay that amount,” Gibbon said, referring to county highway departments across New York. The monthly rate charged for stone and oil, $1.13, nearly equaled the base rate, $1.19.

• Stone and oil surface work scheduled for county Routes 27 in Oxford, 37 in Guilford, 39 in Bainbridge and 9 in Greene have been canceled for the year.

• DPW crews will complete three miles of county Rt. 16 and two miles of county Rt. 4 beginning Tuesday.

County Route 32B Halfway House Bridge:

• Heavy rains late last week delayed the bridge’s opening date until the second week in August.