VASSALBORO -- A $130,000 increase on a $250,000 paving project caused the town to postpone it a year.

The project would have repaired 4.3 miles of roadway on Cross Hill, Hannaford Hill and Bog roads, but rising prices of liquid asphalt made the endeavor too costly, Vassalboro Town Manager Mary Sabins said.

"After evaluating the roads' conditions, which are not severe, we decided we would wait until next spring, when hopefully the prices are lower," Sabins said.

Vassalboro is one of many municipalities facing tough choices on paving projects. Last week, Waterville and Chelsea both agreed to pay more than the contracted price in order to complete paving projects. Officials in Norridgewock and other towns took a different tack, refusing to pay more than the contracted price.

Liquid asphalt costs, the driver behind the increases, is a base for mixing asphalt. It has more than doubled in price since early this year, jumping from $307 a ton in January to $765 last month. It recently reached a high of $865.

When Pike Industries Inc. of Fairfield gave the town a quote on the project in the spring, "it was fairly reasonable, but after that, the price of liquid asphalt went extremely high," she said. "So we would only be able to get half the work done."

Sabins said repaving the roadways would have required 4,167 tons of hot-mix asphalt. When selectmen first discussed the project, hot-mix asphalt cost $59.22 per ton. When the hot-mix price jumped to over $90 per ton, Pike Industries notified the town that the project price would have to go up as well.

Joel Elliott -- 861-9252

jelliott@centralmaine.com