THETFORD — Town officials are asking residents to approve a nearly $4 million bond to fix a section of Route 132 long plagued by potholes, cracks and culvert damage.

The proposed bond comes on its own ballot, separate from that of political races, and has also been mailed out to voters ahead of Tuesday’s election. Town Clerk Tracy Borst this week said more than 50% of voters had already mailed in their ballots.

The bond would use $3.94 million to reclaim, add base gravel, repave and overlay a 3-mile section of Route 132 stretching from the Norwich town line to the intersection with Tucker Hill Road, according to an informational letter sent to residents late last month. The road repairs, which may start as early as next summer, should last for at least 15 years, according to the letter.

“It’s one of the more complained-about things for taxpayers,” Selectboard member Steven Tofel said of the highway, adding that outgoing Town Manager Guy Scaife had brought the proposal to repair the road to the board in the spring. “Scaife’s recommendation is that we could keep putting it off but it wasn’t going to get any better.”

The cost of repaying the bond will amount to around $187 a year for someone with a $250,000 home. The partial interest on the bond would kick in starting in 2021, with the bond itself starting the following year and lasting for 15 years, Selectboard Chairman Nick Clark said at a virtual informational meeting about the proposal on Monday.

He added that the board was bringing the proposal forward this election, rather than at a Town Meeting in the spring, in order to ensure crews can start construction in the summer.

Town officials chose the $3.9 million bond over less expensive, shorter-term repairs, arguing the more complete work will save money over the long term and cost less year-to-year to repay.

“It’s substantially less,” Tofel said of the 15-year bond. “By going down deep into the roadway and repairing the bed, it means we don’t have to do this again for 15 years.”

Parts of Route 132, which stretches from Route 14 in Sharon to Route 5 in Norwich, was first paved in the 1940s and have long been deteriorating, especially after a spate of summer storms in 2017 caused severe structural damage to the Thetford section of the roadway. The town spent months repairing the damage done to the road, which included washouts that had reached bedrock, then-Selectboard Chairman Stuart Rogers said at the time.

Route 132 is a “state-numbered town highway,” which means the towns it runs through are responsible for its repairs, rather than the state. The state will occasionally provide funding for some repairs, but it hasn’t given Thetford any additional funding — other than regular state road maintenance aid — for the upcoming project, Tofel said.

In the spring, Thetford started a repair project to fix a two-mile stretch of Route 132 leading from the Strafford town line to the intersection with Tucker Hill Road, with financial help from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency as part of its mitigation for truck trafic from the Superfund site at the Elizabeth Mine in Strafford. The section of road, which took around six weeks to repair, is open to drivers and crews will apply a topcoat next summer, Tofel said.

Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.